Mission Completed
by Miko Sakura-sama
Summary: Sequel to Most Important Mission. Life's gone back to normal for the agents. The Shikon Jewel's in Kagome's protection, Naraku & Kikyo are dead, and Sango heard her brother's still alive. What could go wrong? Kagome wishing on the jewel to find it a fake?
1. Three Months Later

Mission Completed - Chapter 1 By: Sakura Katsana  
  
Disclaimer: I'm back for the sequel, yet the disclaimer has the same predictable plot. . .  
  
Sakura's Note: Well, glad to see I'm still alive, regardless of the numerous death threats I received after posting the final chapter of MIM. Well, I guess that just shows how much you care, arigatou!  
  
How was everyone's Spring Break? Good?  
  
Yeah, I went to see Dawn of the Dead- a very good movie, by the way. And rented a few I had missed in theaters, nothing else really happened.  
  
Thanks to: Everyone who reviewed and/or read Most Important Mission, it meant a lot to me. ^_^  
  
Enjoy!  
  
***  
  
Chapter 1: Three Months Later. . .  
  
"No, I love you more. . ." Sango giggled, wrapping the phone cord around her finger, "No, I love *you* more. . ."  
  
"Gag."  
  
Sango waved a passive hand at the hanyou, giving him a stern glance. "No, that was Inuyasha. Miroku says hey Inuyasha."  
  
"Hey," Inuyasha drawled, collapsing back onto his partner's bed.  
  
"No, you hang up first. No, you. No. . . you!"  
  
*  
  
"No, Sango, you hang up first," Miroku smirked, winking playfully at the midnight-eyed girl rolling her eyes in the background.  
  
Kagome feigned gagging, "Tell her I'll talk to her tomorrow, I gotta hurl today."  
  
Her partner just laughed, "Kag says she'll talk to you tomorrow. Ok, well, she's getting annoyed. Oh no, there's no girl I'm more scared of than you."  
  
*  
  
Inuyasha flattened his ears on the top of his head, rolling off the bed. "Sango, how much longer("  
  
"Wait! No, you hang up first."  
  
"I have an idea. . ." Inuyasha drawled, "Why don't I hang up *for* you?" He grabbed the phone and put it back on the receiver. "Now can we please go? I gotta get to the race!"  
  
"I gotta call him back, he'll think I hung up on him!"  
  
Inuyasha sighed, waving his hand, "You're pathetic. I was loud on purpose, he knows I did it."  
  
"We have an hour to get there, calm down." Sango smirked, "So unless you wanna hear a very personal conversation I suggest you leave the room. Get ready."  
  
"You're not my mother," Inuyasha growled, walking to the door. "If you don't want me hear all you had to say was the words personal and Miroku in the same sentence."  
  
The hanyou walked down the hall, slipping into his room before Shiori could spot him from Ayame's office.  
  
He grabbed up his boom box from the corner, adjusting the volume from Sango's setting and popping in 3 Doors Down.  
  
~A hundred days have made me older  
  
Since the last time that I saw your pretty face  
  
A thousand lies had made me colder  
  
And I don't think I can look at this the same  
  
But all the miles had separate~  
  
Why had this song been getting to him so much in the past three months? He shook in disgust, practically ripping the hinges off his closet door. "Where-"  
  
"Looking for this?" A leather jacket landed on the hanyou's hatless head, causing his to jump away from his closet in surprise.  
  
"Who the hell?!" Inuyasha grabbed the jacket off, whirling around to stare at the door.  
  
"Yeah, well, I found Shiori cuddling up with it while being briefed by Ayame." Kouga winked, "You're a lucky guy, having such an obsessive stalker."  
  
"Shut up!" Inuyasha growled, "It's not funny."  
  
"And you saying that doesn't help me stop laughing," Kouga smirked, leaning on the doorframe. "So, what's the occasion? Hot date?"  
  
"More like a race," Inuyasha drawled, pulling on a black muscle shirt. "If Sango would just HURRY UP!"  
  
"Shut UP Inuyasha!" Sango growled, slamming her door back closed.  
  
"Well, it's nice to see best friends bond, ain't it?" Kouga looked down at his claws. "When is it?"  
  
The angered half demon raised an eyebrow, tugging on his leather jacket, a silver streak on the back, "Why?"  
  
"Thought it'd be a nice place to take Ayame tonight. Four month anniversary coming up."  
  
"Oh, that's real romantic, Kouga. Take her to the shady district of New York City to see a race? She'll be putty in your hands."  
  
"My Ayame's not into the candlelight dinner deal."  
  
"Lucky you, less money involved."  
  
"Not really, she'll be asking me for money and she'll be placing bets." Kouga blew the hair out of his face, "Oh Kouga-kun, can I have fifty? Thank you! Fifty on Fang."  
  
"Your impressions of me are striking," Ayame spoke in monotone, walking up behind the wolf demon. "I guess I'll have to work a bit harder on mine."  
  
"Is my room the new hang out? If you stay here much longer Shiori's gon-"  
  
"Inu-kun!" The white-haired hanyou gazed up at the agent, an adoring look on her face. "Are you going racing?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Can I come?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Why not?" she pouted.  
  
"Fine, you can come, hopefully you'll get kidnapped. . ."  
  
"Inuyasha!"  
  
"What? Gods, Ayame, can you two go make out somewhere?"  
  
"Nooooo. . . We'd much rather watch this."  
  
"Wow Inu-kun! You have a lot of silk boxers!"  
  
"What-? GIVE ME THOSE!"  
  
"This is entertaining, want to just watch this?" Kouga put an arm around the oni's waist.  
  
"Ok!"  
  
"Hey! A little help here!" Inuyasha lunged for the girl, tripping on his own Timberlands before managing to grab the article.  
  
"Waaah!" Shiori's eyes filled, "I was only playing Inu-kun!"  
  
"With my *underwear*?!"  
  
"What 's going on in here?" Sango popped her head in.  
  
"Shiori came, Shiori stole his boxers and he caught them. Thus leading us to this." Kouga whispered, beaming.  
  
"Oh."  
  
"Sango!"  
  
His partner sighed, "Alright. . ."  
  
"Don't spoil our fun!" Kouga pleaded, sounding like he was back in the fifth grade.  
  
"Shiori, I think Kouga likes you." Sango winked at her, "You know, woman to woman, he says you're really cute."  
  
The girl's eyes widened, "Really?"  
  
"What the hell-Cut it out Shiori!" Kouga rushed down the hall, the half bat demon keeping up with his pace.  
  
"Good one, Sango."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
"I think I'll go help Kouga-kun," Ayame muttered, running down the hall after her fiancé.  
  
"Ready to go?" Sango played with the bangles now around her arms. "I got a bet to place for Miroku."  
  
"Why're you placing bets for Miroku?" Inuyasha grabbed Fang's keys and his leather gloves.  
  
Sango blushed, "Well, actually it's in the name of love. We're placing it together. So you better win!"  
  
"Have you ever known me to lose a race? Now come on, before I miss it and your love pledge is wasted."  
  
*  
  
"When are you going to talk to him?" Miroku nudged the girl, a serious look on his face. "This has gone on long enough, Kagome."  
  
"Who are you talking about?" Kagome blinked away the tears before her friend could see, turning the page of her magazine.  
  
"Don't act dumb with me."  
  
"I don't want to talk about this. I have to have a clear mind for tonight. . ." Kagome flipped the magazine closed, rolling off the bed and out of the room.  
  
She sighed, walking to her closet and pulling out the small chest, a fingerprint analysis lock added to the top. Taking another deeper breath the stormy-eyed girl pressed her finger down on the gel like substance.  
  
Automatically her hands became pink from the jewel's glow, sending a feeling of warmth throughout her veins.  
  
She'd been purifying it for three months now, hoping to make it fully good again in order to use it to find the newest kingpin out there.  
  
Less than a week later after Naraku's hideout had been combed through and all evidence brought forth the frozen accounts that had once belonged to the linchpin were somehow transferred into another account, going by the name S.J.H.  
  
With the Shikon Jewel she would be able to find out. Using only one of it's infinite wishes*.  
  
Sir had said that she should bring it to his office for a conference. Miroku would be there, he knew she wouldn't want to be stuck in there with him and the other higher branches of the agency.  
  
Gods she was nervous!  
  
Rolling the sphere in her hand memories flashed through her head. The good, the funny, the bad, the painful.  
  
~"Y-you speak Japanese?" Kagome suddenly blurted out.  
  
"Well duh! What idiotic agent comes without knowing the language." Sango winked and turned to the laughing Inuyasha. "P.S., we are both from Tokyo."~  
  
~He inched closer to her and knelt down farther. He reached out and forced her eyelids shut and then reopened them again.~  
  
~"Don't interrupt a pissed off hanyou with a bullet wound," Inuyasha warned. "There's no way to see her in this darkness so we need to try and wake her."~  
  
~"Here," Inuyasha grabbed Kagome's hand which contained the key and, using his keen eyes, inserted it into the hole with ease. Then repeated this action with the other lock.  
  
. . .  
  
"Oh yeah," Inuyasha hastily let go of Kagome's hand and took his place at helping up newly-released agent.~  
  
~Inuyasha smirked, nodding his head upward so his sunglasses fell back over his eyes.  
  
Kagome glanced at the agent and turned to face the left window, "Take those off."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Take those off," Kagome spoke a little softer, refusing to look at him. "They hide your eyes."  
  
"No one will miss them," Inuyasha stated, somewhat disappointed.  
  
"So I'm no one?" Kagome whispered, soft enough she was surprised when she looked over at him from the corner of her eye -  
  
That he was staring at her. "No, you're not."~  
  
~"What lies are you spouting now, Kikyo?" Her older sister smirked, closing the distance between her and Inuyasha in a passionate kiss.  
  
Inuyasha's eyes widened in shock but he didn't pull away.~  
  
~"I'm sorry, Kagome. You know I am. We need to talk about this."  
  
"You have a plane to catch."  
  
"Look, I'll call you. I'd stay if it was just me, but the others have to go too . . ." he sighed, "I don't want to leave it like this."  
  
"Just go."~  
  
~"How are you holding up, Kagome?" Sango's voice was nice to hear, seeing how Miroku had taken up the line for two hours.  
  
"Fine. Why shouldn't I be?"  
  
There was a sigh, followed by a long pause on the other line. "How are you holding up, Kag-chan?"  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"I mean the fact that you seem fine about this and Inuyasha seems to be killing himself over it. That's what I mean, I know what happened and it just doesn't seem like you'd forget-"  
  
"I'm fine, Sango-chan. Don't worry about me. Really."~  
  
Kagome lowered her head in silent shame.  
  
He'd forgotten something when he left, the hoodie she'd found herself sleeping on when she woke up in Fang. No one knew, probably not even he noticed that it had gone missing. She'd found it under the spare bed in Miroku's room while returning a CD.  
  
It smelled like something wild, pine trees and musk. She mis- what was she saying?!  
  
*  
  
"150 on Fang, Duke," Sango handed the man the cash, watching as he recorded it and winked at her. "You sure you want to do that? There's a new racer here tonight, hasn't lost a race."  
  
Her magenta eyes widened, "Who is this racer?"  
  
"No one knows, as soon as the race is over she collects her cash and leaves."  
  
"She?"  
  
"Yeah, goes by Wind Witch, which for her is true." Duke accepted another bet. "So, still betting on your brother?"  
  
The agent stiffened, 'Kohaku. . .' "What d'you mean?"  
  
"Your brother, Inuyasha. You always said when you were little he protected you like one."  
  
"Oh! Yeah, still on him."  
  
Duke looked down at her, eyeing her with concern, "You alright Sango?"  
  
"Yeah, just jogged memories. That's all."  
  
*  
  
"Alright! Start your engines!" A girl by the name of Abi walked up to the middle of the track, Duke right behind her.  
  
"Ok, when my girlfriend flashes you, it's time to start the race!" he was automatically slapped, the audience laughing in unison at the pervert. "Never mind, when she drops the flag start. . ."  
  
His girlfriend smiled alluringly, "Ready. . .set. GO!" the cars tore down the track, the flag just now falling to the ground.  
  
Inuyasha turned the corner, looking in his rearview mirror in satisfaction.  
  
Not a single car.  
  
A flash of black whizzed by, a silver stripe ripping down the side, a red one across the hood.  
  
"Who the hell?" the hanyou growled, speeding faster towards the car until they were head to head. He quickly glanced over at the driver's seat. A woman sat there, a purple belly-dancing scarf covering her nose and mouth. Her eyes looked to be red, but that could be the lights.  
  
They both pushed the pedal at the same moment, speeding down the road with only their taillights visible.  
  
'Who is this woman?'  
  
*  
  
"And the winner is. . ." Duke looked ahead, eyes slits in concentration. "A tie?"  
  
The crowd began to murmur as the two cars came to a stop, both racers exiting their cars and coming towards the man.  
  
Sango rushed through, hoping to catch a glimpse of the racer that'd tied with Inuyasha. As she made her way through the crowd she felt someone slip something into her jacket's pocket. Sango whipped around, "Who-?" A woman in red and black made her way calmly through the crowd, a purple scarf covering half of her face.  
  
"How much did you bet on me?" Inuyasha walked up, counting off his payment.  
  
"Hundred fifty. . ." Sango murmured, pulling a black paper from her pocket.  
  
"What's that?" Inuyasha peered down at the folded note, "Don't just stand there, Sango, open it!"  
  
She nodded, opening it to see a message, causing her heart to get caught in her throat.  
  
* Sango,  
  
Your brother is alive. Meet me at Central Park in one hour for details.  
  
He's not in danger.  
  
~Kagura.*  
  
If it wasn't for Inuyasha grabbing her arm she would be on the ground. Her hands trembled, "Kohaku. . ."  
  
*  
  
"So Kagura tied with me. . ." Inuyasha looked out towards the track. Most of the racers and audience had already left, leaving a few scattered around the area.  
  
"I'm going." Sango slid into Fang, giving a quick wave to Duke.  
  
"Fine then. So am I."  
  
"No you're not."  
  
"What the hell do you mean?" Inuyasha growled, looking away from the road. "Of course I am!"  
  
"Inuyasha. . .thank you. But this is something I need to do alone." the way she said it had so much certainty, confidence. He would have been an ass to ignore.  
  
"I don't like it but fine." Inuyasha tossed her his gun, stopping at the curb near Central Park. "When should I come for you?"  
  
"I have my cell, I'll call you. Thanks, again, for not making this a big deal." Sango smiled, closing Fang's door and leaving down the darkened path. The sound of a common thug falling to the ground music to the hanyou's ears.  
  
*  
  
Sango continued walking down the path, feeling pretty good about herself for ridding the city of yet another mugger. It wasn't until she felt a familiar razor at her throat that her heart skipped a beat.  
  
*  
  
Kagome walked down the hall, jewel in hand. Miroku said he would be coming soon, he had to check something. She paused outside of the oak door, taking deep breath to calm her nerves.  
  
Gods was she nervous!  
  
With a shaky hand she entered the room to find herself surrounded by regal looking members of the agency, their eyes boring into her, looking her over as if to say 'how can a girl like that control the jewel?'  
  
"Hello Sir, other members of the board." Kagome smiled, sitting at the head of the table with the jewel.  
  
"Hello Kagome." Sir stood at the other head of the table, a confidence- building smiling on his face. "They would like to know if you would educate them on the jewel and purifying process before you did what you came to do."  
  
'Nani?!' Kagome just smiled again, nodding, "Fine by me."  
  
"Alright then, proceed." It was only then that she noticed Myouga was there, a twinkle in his eye.  
  
'Finally, another kind face!' "The Shikon no Tama, or Shikon Jewel, actually dates back to the Sengoku Jidai, or the Warring States Era. It is rumored that the Jewel came into being when a miko by the name of Midoriko fought off a horde of demons, all fused by one man. She used the last of her energy to vanquish the demons and died in the process, creating the jewel."  
  
The men and women raised eyebrows at this.  
  
'I guess we know who's skeptic here. . .' "The jewel, while in the hands of Naraku, was fed evil energy, causing it to become evil itself. I came from a line of priestesses, my sister as well. The only thing was my intentions were good, therefore the jewel can be purified only by me. I have been working with it up until know."  
  
"And, tell me, how do you purify this jewel?" an older woman with a prim voice called across the mahogany table.  
  
"All I have to do is hold it, feeding it positive energy." the woman scribbled something down, nodding to Sir.  
  
"Alright Kagome, you may use it now."  
  
"Yes Sir," Kagome nodded, somewhat nervously, before picking up the jewel of the table's cool surface and closing her eyes. 'Tell us the identity of this new kingpin, and the information on S.J.H.'  
  
The jewel glowed brighter, it's surface becoming warm.  
  
Then.  
  
Nothing.  
  
Kagome opened her eyes, the board members looking at her with confused expressions.  
  
'Maybe it has to be said aloud.' "Tell us the identity of this new kingpin, and the information on S.J.H." Kagome waited, as well as everyone else. The jewel only glowed, heating but doing nothing else.  
  
'In the form of a wish?' "I wish to know the identity of this new kingpin, and the information on S.J.H."  
  
Nothing.  
  
Kagome looked closer at the jewel, her abashed look not consoling the other agents.  
  
That's when she saw it.  
  
A small, almost invisible speck of light, the color of the wire in a light bulb, showing through the jewel's pink surface.  
  
"It's a fake."  
  
***  
  
*I know that in the anime the Shikon Jewel gives one wish, but here, since it is AU, I decided a while back it had more than one.  
  
Sugoi, sugoi! I finally got this chapter out! *takes a deep breath* After all those death threats I thought it wise. Anyway, you know me, all first chapters are short, longer as the story goes on.  
  
This story should be a bit shorter than MIM, around 20 chapters. Unless I get wrapped up in the plot and make it 25 ^_~. I know you want the next chapter soon, so please R&R!  
  
Ja ne  
  
~Sakura 


	2. Mission Reopened

Mission Completed - Chapter 2 By: Sakura Katsana  
  
Disclaimer: I bet you're wondering what I could possibly be doing. Well if you must know I'm in the process of making Inuyasha sign himself and the others over to me *muffled obscenities in the background* So. . .I'll be back whenever he gives in.^_^  
  
Sakura's Note: Well, I think I got this out in a reasonable amount of time, don't you? I need to address a few things, and then it's off to the first chapter, which was made *before* this A/N, but, that's just how I work. ^_^  
  
*Also, I'm looking for a beta-reader for an upcoming story of mine. I have contacted a few pros, but if there any takers here please email me for details. I do have requirements though, so don't be offended if I don't pick you. Thank you.*  
  
Now to answer questions. . .  
  
1) The whole fake jewel thing will be addressed later on in this chapter. I'll try to make all the technical stuff I'm planning for the explanation clear, sometimes I get caught up in writing and then have to reread and reread myself to make it understandable. ^_^;;;;;  
  
2) Inuyasha and Kagome, like I said in MIM, will be getting together, you don't think I'd ever write something without at least a *bit* of Inu/Kag in it, do you? Well, even if you did, I would never do such a thing, so rest assured.  
  
3) To Yun Fei: Thanks! I really appreciate it! I *do* have something on my mind, as always- seeing how I'm a scatter brain- but yes, there will be some very interesting situations involving our favorite agents. ^_~ Thanks for reviewing!  
  
Thanks to: Dork in Training, TaintedInuShemeeko, Eloraya, Okibi Usagi, Queeney, Yun Fei, Skiddy16 (I'm flattered about the rereading thing!), Inu- chan, Sammy&Jingles, firehottie, jschu25, and last but not least: swimchick1614.  
  
Please enjoy this chapter, dedicated to my best friend, JC, for inspiring me for it.  
  
R&R!  
  
***  
  
Chapter 2: Mission Reopened  
  
"Long time no see," the fan was removed from the sensitive skin of the agent's throat, the owner of the fan's voice sugary sweet. Kagura smirked when the magenta-eyed girl spun around out of instinct in a fighting stance. "Hello. Sango, right?"  
  
"You don't seem like the kind of person that would forget someone's name." Sango said indifferently, her muscles slowing beginning to relax. "By the way- what the hell was with that greeting?"  
  
"Don't you have a sense of humor?" the demon let out a laugh. "Anyways, I'm glad you found the spot ok. I'm surprised Inuyasha didn't come along, being so overprotective and all. I did want to see how he was doing. But, seeing how you'll be coming over to our humble home later I guess I won't have to wait too long."  
  
"What do you-"  
  
The red eyed woman held up a hand, "How are you?"  
  
She seemed so *different*. So. . .*happy*.  
  
"Um. . .fine." She took a quick breath, "Are you still-"  
  
"Assassins? No. We're rich enough not to have to dirty our hands anymore. Although the action's missed- but. About your brother. He's alive."  
  
She certainly got to the point. "I got that much from the note."  
  
"Well, I was only changing the subject, the details will flow on their own, just like me." Her blood red eyes glanced around. "There's someone here. Unconscious though."  
  
"That'd be a thug I met."  
  
"Nice." Kagura smirked, looking up at the sky. "I can tell you're anxious, so let me just say what I came here to say."  
  
Sango folded her arms across her chest, clenching and unclenching her toes in her shoes.  
  
"He didn't die at the headquarters like you thought. Sesshoumaru sensed he was still alive but didn't tell you. He didn't want to give you any false hope. Kohaku went into a coma. Kanna donated some of her demon blood to keep him alive 'till she could get him to America."  
  
"We brought him back to America with us, he's been under our care since then, still bedridden though. I decided to tell you once he woke up, so your hopes didn't lift too high. He awoke yesterday."  
  
"Gods. . ." Without warning tears ran down her cheeks, leaving salty remains behind. "Thank you. . .so much." Seconds ago she had been able to hold herself together, it was like a the flood gates had opened.  
  
"No need to get all mushy about it." Kagura waved a flippant hand, a genuine smile on her face. "Rin does love him being around, keeps him company almost all the time. She's taken a liking to him. We don't torture him, I don't think Yura minded giving up her room for the boy. She was looking for him desperately when he was still under Naraku's control."  
  
"When can I see him?"  
  
"How about tomorrow?" Kagura handed her a card. "Here's the address, come around noon. I'll see ya then, I gotta go see a man about some bombs." that said she walked into the trees, the sound of a car's low hum telling Sango she was gone.  
  
'This is it. Tomorrow I'll see my brother. . .'  
  
*  
  
"Sorry for being. . .so. . .late." Miroku paused, still gripping the knob. "Kagome?"  
  
"What is the meaning of this? What's wrong with it?" A senior agent jumped up from the table, "Don't tell me you called us all here for nothing!"  
  
"Didn't you hear her? She said it was a fake!" Sir yelled with the others. "Kagome, take it down to analysis, I'll handle this."  
  
Kagome nodded, leaving the room in a hurry with Miroku behind her. "Kag! What's going on?! What's a fake?"  
  
"The Shikon no tama!" Kagome yelled behind her, rushing down the hall and ignoring Hojo's call from down the hall. Miroku finally caught up with her.  
  
"What? But you've been purifying it for months!"  
  
"I know." Kagome practically kicked down the door to the lab, "That's what I don't get."  
  
*  
  
"It's heat sensitive." Kagome touched the faux jewel with a stirrer.  
  
Nothing.  
  
Then with her finger.  
  
The orb lit up, sending a warm feeling from the tip of her finger to her head.  
  
"What is it?" Miroku looked at her troubled face.  
  
"Heat sensitive and heat conductor. It reflects the heat you gave off back into you, making it seem like you're purifying it."  
  
"Naraku planned this out well. . ." Miroku muttered.  
  
"Kohaku died for the sake of this-this FAKE piece of crap!" Kagome threw it to the ground, a small chink as a result. "What?" She knelt down, peering down at the sphere. It was slowly cracking, then before her eyes it shattered, becoming hundreds of shard all over the floor.  
  
"So where's the real one?"  
  
The female agent blinked, "That's what I want to know. It's what we *need* to know. All I know is if this is fake then Naraku had the Shikon Jewel when he died. So whoever reopened those accounts-"  
  
"-have the jewel," Miroku finished, furrowing his eyebrows. "S.J.H. We should get the code breakers on it."  
  
"No, we need to figure this out ourselves."  
  
"What are you talking about?! I can't crack codes!"  
  
"Yes you can! Remember the day before Sango left you helped her crack that code and get a teddy bear?"  
  
Miroku blushed slightly at the thought, "Yeah. But that was different! That was the kind of code you find in a cereal box."  
  
"This could be too." Kagome argued, sweeping all the shards onto a tray and back onto the sterile countertop. "Hold on a sec."  
  
"Found something?"  
  
The agent nodded, placing a piece of the faux jewel underneath a microscope. "This has the same initials. S.J.H."  
  
"Let me see," Kagome moved over allowing Miroku access to the neck of the microscope. "Hold on, there's something else here. . ."  
  
Kagome let go of her finger- which had been cut by the glass- to take a look. "What? What is it?"  
  
"Hard to tell. Looks like. . .MIC- no, no, NYC. In English."  
  
"NYC?" Kagome cocked an eyebrow, "What's that stand for?"  
  
Both paused in thought.  
  
Inuyasha. . .  
  
Sango. . .  
  
USA. . .  
  
"New York City!"  
  
*  
  
"So. . .*why* does he want me to come again?" Inuyasha looked up from his magazine, watching as his partner scurried around the room like a roach running from the light. "Oh, and by the way, what are you looking for?"  
  
"I'm not looking for anything!"  
  
The hanyou blinked incredulously, "Um. . .so what do *you* call it?"  
  
She paused, taking the time to glare at him pointblank. He blinked back, not giving in easily. "Pacing."  
  
"Ah. Well then, continue." His honey orbs rolled back down to the magazine, scanning the page almost as fast as he'd turned the last one.  
  
". . ."  
  
". . ."  
  
". . ."  
  
"WELL?!" Inuyasha jumped onto his bed, abandoning his racing glossy magazine for his own safety.  
  
"Damn it! What is it, Sango?" Inuyasha's eyes were wide with mystification, his mouth a thin line unlike most other times when it was the exact opposite.  
  
"Aren't you going to ask *why* I'm pacing?"  
  
"Because I know why. . ." the hybrid drawled, tentatively reaching back from his somewhat mussed bed to retrieve his reading material.  
  
"Oh really?"  
  
"Really."  
  
"Oh really?!"  
  
"REALLY!" Inuyasha roared, regaining all lost bravery and then some.  
  
"Then why?!"  
  
"You haven't seen Kohaku since we were in Japan, and then you thought he was dead. Now, three months later you find out that he not only alive, but also in the care of my *dear*-take note of the sarcasm there- brother. You're worried about him and if it's a trap or not. Plus you're worried if he'll even recognize you."  
  
". . .I'm not worried it's a trap. . ." Sango mumbled, crossing her arms like a toddler.  
  
"When are we supposed to be there?"  
  
Her magenta orbs looked down at her watch, "In ten minutes."  
  
Now it was her turn to watch as he cursed, zoomed around the room, and grabbed up his keys before rushing like the room. He sort of reminded her of a cat trying to get out of a bath.  
  
*  
  
"This is not his house. This is not his house. This is NOT MY DAMNED BROTHER'S HOUSE!" Inuyasha roared, refusing to get out of the car.  
  
"But this is the address Kagura gave me, so it's right."  
  
"How did he get out of there with that much money?" Inuyasha yelped, storming up to the door and pounding on the it.  
  
"I dunno." was his best friend's intelligent answer.  
  
"Watch, a butler will answer the door."  
  
"No one's answering the door."  
  
"Not the point I was trying to make, damn it!"  
  
"Now who's tense?"  
  
"You."  
  
"Inuyasha. . ."  
  
"Keh."  
  
"Maybe we should ring the doorbell. . ." Sango mused aloud.  
  
"Go ahead, it won't make any difference."  
  
The agent complied, pushing the small feather-shaped doorbell as a melody filled the inside of the house.  
  
Doo, doo, doo, doo-do-do-doo-do-doo-do-do, doo doo doo doo do doo doo doo doo doo do do doo doo-  
  
"Is that Change the World?"  
  
"I think so."  
  
"Hm."  
  
Suddenly the door opened, revealing a young woman with blood red eyes, short hair, and a black bikini finishing it all off. "Hi! We've been waiting for you! Come in, come in!"  
  
Inuyasha and Sango both entered the estate, looking around inquiringly.  
  
Yura plopped down on one of the plush white sofas in what the agents guessed was the living room, curling up comfortably next to one of the biggest pillows. "How are you?"  
  
"Where's my brother?"  
  
"Not one for conversation are you?" Yura leaned over, wrapping her slider fingers around the neck of her cocktail glass. "Look, I am truly for sorry for all the grief we caused. Under the influence, trying to keep my daughter safe, Naraku. . ."  
  
"It's hard to be friendly." Sango admitted, looking over at Inuyasha. "Although it seems you've changed."  
  
"For the better, too." Yura beamed, watching as a little girl rushed past with a glass of water. "If you follow my daughter you'll find your brother."  
  
'This is it,' Sango took a deep breath, feeling anxious before she fully rose to her feet. "Thank you."  
  
Inuyasha rushed after her, having to use his demon heritage to keep up.  
  
*  
  
Sango stopped where the little girl had entered, the sound of giggling filling the hall.  
  
"I see you made it here ok." Sango tensed before recognizing the voice. Kagura came into her field of vision, a blissful look on her face and fire in her eyes. "Just wanted to say hi, I am a bit busy at the moment. But, I'll come find you in a little while-"  
  
"Kagura?" Sesshoumaru walked out of one of the many rooms, his shirt wrinkled and half unbuttoned, his pants in no better shape. At the sight of his brother, his brother's partner, and Rin who had found that the perfect time to come out and freeze with eyes open at the scene, the usually stoic ex-assassin's cheeks turned a light shade of pink before he disappeared back into the room.  
  
Inuyasha blinked. "I did not need to see that. . ." he murmured, closing his eyes, "Oh gods! Damn my photographic memory!"  
  
Sango burst into laughter, managing to get out one coherent sentence, "Come on, Inuyasha, he was still wearing clothes."  
  
"But the suggestion! The suggestion was there!" Inuyasha closed his eyes again before remembering the sight of his brother. "Damn it Kagura!"  
  
"What'd I do?" She looked away from the door the agent's half-brother had just reentered, "I'm not the one that's half undressed. . .yet."  
  
"Get in that room! You're disturbing the child!"  
  
"I think we're disturbing you more, Inuyasha. Rin walked in on us once."  
  
. . .  
  
"WHAT?!"  
  
"Kidding! Only kidding!" Kagura laughed at both agents' faces, finding her way back to the room. "Hope that got rid of your nervousness, Sango. If not I just traumatized my brother-in-law for no reason."  
  
"Brother-in-law?" Inuyasha yelped, eyes wide in bewilderment. "Kagura! Wait, wait, wait!" He grabbed the knob of the door, repelling when he heard a giggle from inside, along with a very seductive voice.  
  
Sango's mind quickly reverted back to why she had come, "Kohaku!" Rin had already found her way back into the bedroom, now telling the groggy boy about her encounter with a duck and a tortoise. "Kohaku. . ."  
  
The boy looked up, something perking up instantly at the woman who had entered his room. "A-" he rose himself up with his arms until he rested comfortably on his pillows.  
  
Rin, sensing a private moment gave him a peck on the cheek before running out of the room to try and watch with the other agent.  
  
"Aneue. . ." a tear trickled down his older sister's cheek, onto the red- carpeted floor.  
  
"Kohaku. . .? Kohaku!" Sango all but dived onto the bed, two twin waterfalls running from her eyes, down her cheeks, and onto the somewhat confused teenager. "Oh gods, you don't know how happy I am! I thought you were dead!"  
  
He stayed silent, just putting an arm on his sister's shoulder, letting her hold him to make up for lost time.  
  
She'd said his name more than enough in the past five minutes, but couldn't stop repeating it in her head or outside of it. All that mattered was him.  
  
Right there.  
  
Right now.  
  
Being her brother.  
  
"Ahem." Inuyasha glanced over his shoulder, seeing a very pale young girl, although her skin now seemed to hold a bit more pink in it. "Inuyasha?"  
  
"Yeah. Kanna, right?" she nodded, giving him a slight chill down his spine.  
  
"It's nice to see you well."  
  
"Thanks. I haven't seen you in a while either."  
  
"You barely know me. I hope to change that now that we're family." Kanna looked down, her voice lower than usual, "Better than my old one."  
  
"About that-"  
  
Rin managed to tear herself away from eavesdropping to join into the conversation, grabbing onto Inuyasha's pants leg.  
  
"Uncle Inuyasha!" She cried, a huge smile on her face.  
  
The albino girl seemed to understand, "They were married a month ago, today is their one month anniversary. A good couple in their own right I guess."  
  
"Take me for a piggy back ride!" Rin chirped, tugging on his pants leg again, a bit more energetic this time. "Pweez Uncle Inu?"  
  
"Sorry kid, but I'm not your uncle." He wasn't good with kids. Never had been, even when he was one. And it was certainly not the time to get in some practice when his partner and best friend of more than seven years was using up all the water in her system on tears right now in the other room.  
  
"Yes you are, everyone here is family!" the little girl squealed, jumping up and down. "Except maybe Jaken, but no one sees him much."  
  
Kanna sighed, kneeling down to the child, "Aren't you Yura's kid?"  
  
"Yeah! But I'm Papa Fluffy's and Mama Kagura's too! So that means Uncle Inu's really my uncle! That means he can give me a piggy back ride! That means I'm special! Right Aunt Kanna?"  
  
"I'm too young to be an aunt, call me Kanna like you call Juuroumaru, Juuroumaru."  
  
"Ok Aunt Kanna!" Inuyasha held back the laughter as the usually stoic girl flinched slightly, her shoulders slumping in defeat. "Go get a piggy back ride."  
  
*  
  
Everyone was now seated in the living room, all except for Jaken, who was still missing. Inuyasha still had Rin on his shoulders, both sitting next to Sango and her still fairly confused brother. Sesshoumaru sat next to Kagura, who was curled up next to him. Kanna sat next to Juuroumaru, and Yura on the other side of Inuyasha, her daughter giggling at every face she made.  
  
"It's seems Rin's taken to your little brother." Juuroumaru observed, watching with the same somewhat threatening look he always seemed to have as Rin continued tweaking with the hanyou's ears.  
  
"Half-" his correction was interrupted by the his cell phone's very cheerful ring tone. "Sango, did you mess with my phone again?"  
  
Sango raised an eyebrow, "Again?"  
  
"Yes, again. You changed it to 'Velvet Teddy Bear' last time."  
  
"Um, that was Shiori, Dog-boy."  
  
"What?!"  
  
"Answer the phone!" Yura whined, "I hate Achy Breaky Heart!"  
  
"So do I. . ." Inuyasha growled, all but pounding in the Send button, "What is it Shippou?" Sango sighed, reaching for her coffee cup. "Miroku? How'd you get this number?" The agent's girl friend perked up at the mention of his name. "What?! . . .Ok, yeah. We're on it. We'll be expecting you. Uh huh, bye."  
  
"What is it?" Kagura sat up, looking from agent to agent in concern.  
  
"The mission's been reopened. The jewel's a fake."  
  
***  
  
Ok, so it's a short chapter for a two-three week waiting period. But, instead of school slowing down now it's actually speeding up. *sigh* So, I will be hopefully updating most stories this weekend, starting today. *wipes sweat off forehead* I've been typing non stop since this morning! (it's 5:23pm)  
  
Hope you enjoyed it. Please review, and forgive me for my slow update! ^_^  
  
Ja ne  
  
~Sakura 


	3. Reunited

Mission Completed - Chapter 3 By: Sakura Katsana  
  
Disclaimer: Guess who signed the papers? No, guess! No, not Inuyasha. No one signed the papers. I still don't own him, happy? Good. 'Cuz I'm not.  
  
Sakura's Note: Ello! How are you? I hope you're all great. I have a few things to say and then it's off to the story I began writing before this A/N was even thought of. ;;  
  
Shout outs:  
  
1. Beta-reader: I found a beta-reader a day after I requested one in Chapter 2 of MC. Her name's Ariri-sama, she's not from ff.net I don't think. She's on mediaminor. But, please, if anyone sees any grammar mistakes or spelling, hell- even some slip ups with last names and tiny repeated details (I tend to do these a lot) put it in your review. I like constructive criticism because it shows you're trying to help. (I don't mind regular reviews, though. They're all great to read!)  
  
2. ". . .But, what's up with Sango having a different name? ...I forgot...was that in the first fic? MIM?. . ." DIT  
  
I'm kind of confused as to what you mean in different name. Do you mean last name or Aneue? If you do mean Aneue, I got it from the second Inuyasha Movie. It means older sister, something Kohaku calls his sister when he is not under Naraku's control. If I gave her a different last name, please tell me what you think the old one was so I can correct it. (I'm really bad with keeping last names the same ;;)  
  
3. I will soon have some pictures on deviant art . com pertaining to some of my fics. I drew a picture of Inuyasha and Kagome dancing a long time ago- this having to do with chapter 14 (I think) of MIM. Once I scan it, color it in Adobe Photoshop 5.5, and post it there I'll be sure to let you know.   
  
I think that's all that needs to be addressed.  
  
Thanks to: Dragon Man 180, trixie-trix, Dork in Training, firehottie, babiixwolf, Skiddy16, teentoxipixi, TaintedInuShemeeko, swimchick1614, jschu25, Jessica, Queeney, and kureeji joshin.  
  
Here's chapter three, enjoy and R&R! .  
  
Chapter 3:  
  
"What?" Yura leapt up, causing pillows to fall to the ground. "What? How can that-?" The woman looked from Kagura to Sesshoumaru, then to her daughter's face.  
  
"How's that possible?" Sango did as Yura had, "Kagome's been-"  
  
"Purifying it, I know. We all thought that. Miroku told me it's heat sensitive and heat conductive. It absorbs the heat from the body and then tosses it back at you like the boomerang effect. She thought she was purifying it when all she was doing was holding a cheap piece of glass."  
  
The room became quiet, not even Rin's laughter continued.  
  
"So why are they coming here?" Sango looked over at her partner, Rin still examining his ears happily- although quietly.  
  
"They said that the letters NYC were on a piece of the fake jewel. Same with S.J.H." Inuyasha shrugged, getting up. "They'll be here by tonight since their using the agency's fastest jet."  
  
"Get us updated on this." Kagura interrupted. "I'll be damned if Naraku comes back, in America this time."  
  
Sesshoumaru nodded vaguely, a serious look in his eyes for the first time that day. "If you leave us out of the loop we'll be forced to get involved personally. Probably more than you wish us to, little brother."  
  
"Keh. Don't worry, keep your pants on. And I really do mean that." Inuyasha growled, setting the little girl down on the sofa and ignoring her protests.  
  
"Uncle Inu!" Rin whined, "Don't go! Don't go!"  
  
"Sorry kid, duty calls." Inuyasha wiggled his ears for her before leaving the room. "We'll be in touch." Rin got a mischievous look on her cute little face before running out of the room.  
  
"Thank you, for everything." Sango gave a gracious smile. "Come on Kohaku. . ."  
  
"He can stay with us if you want, until this is all settled." Yura offered, "If you think the agency might not be the safest place for him right now."  
  
"Thank you, but I want him to be with me right now. I've lived without him in my life since I was a little girl, I'm not losing any more."  
  
"We understand. The offer stands, though." Kanna nodded at her brother's words.  
  
"It's good to know." Sango bowed, "Come on Kohaku." The boy got up, thanking everyone before heading after his sister.  
  
"Well, now that we got the thank you's out of the way. . ." Inuyasha slipped into Fang, started the engine.  
  
Kohaku gawked at the silver automobile, "This is. . .the coolest car ever!" Sango and Inuyasha traded glances with raised eyebrows.  
  
"Nice to see you talking again. But, I guess seeing how your sister was hogging most our your conversation I'm not surprised." Inuyasha smirked, "And yes, it is the coolest car ever."  
  
They didn't notice Inuyasha's jacket move.  
  
"Gods! Where is it?"  
  
"Where's what Dog-boy?" Sango and her brother's eyes trailed after the frantic dog demon.  
  
"Yeah, it'd help to know." Kohaku added.  
  
"My jacket. . ." Inuyasha murmured, basically turning his bed upside down.  
  
"Which one? Your black leather one, your dress one, your brown one, your denim one-"  
  
"The leather one!" both siblings started at his snappish tone.  
  
"Aneue, what's up with him?"  
  
"I think he wants to look nice for Kagome when she gets here." both brunettes cocked their heads. It was wonderful- and weird- how siblings could act so much alike after not seeing each other for so long.  
  
"That girl you told me about in Fang?"  
  
"Uh huh."  
  
"I'm NOT trying to look nice for Kagome!" Inuyasha roared, giving a final survey of his room. "I want to know where my racing jacket is!"  
  
"Maybe you left it in Fang."  
  
". . .Keh!" He rushed from the room, running faster when Shiori came around the corner.  
  
The garage was silent, except for a few random drops of water hitting the floor. Then a lock clicked, something rustled, a door opened, and out slid a figure, quickly rushing into the base without a second thought or a single sound of its footsteps.  
  
Inuyasha ran a clawed hand through his mane of silver hair. "Damn jacket better be in here. . ." he grumbled, pressing the 'open' button on his key chain. Fang honked, signaling it was unlocked.  
  
"There you are. . ." he smirked, grabbing up the leather racing jacket and left the garage.  
  
"Could you stop looking out the window for the jet? It isn't that big of a deal." Inuyasha snuck a glance out the large glass panel before continuing to chastise the female agent. "Miroku coming, yay. You get to kiss. You get to hug. What is the big deal?"  
  
Sango gave him the driest look he'd ever seen. Inuyasha wondered why her face wasn't cracking already. "I'm getting to see my boyfriend for the first time in three months! What do you think the big deal is?"  
  
Inuyasha waved a submissive hand, "Just keep it to PG around the kid." Sango shot him a glare, but all was forgotten when a small black jet with 'Tokyo' on it's side pulled in, landing at a gate.  
  
She squealed with delight, jumping over three suitcases before jumping onto Miroku, giving him the fiercest kiss he'd seen. "I missed you too Sango," he managed, waddling the best he could over to Inuyasha with the agent still hanging from him. "Hey."  
  
"Hey." Inuyasha managed, shocked at Sango's lack of self control. Kohaku stood next to him, eyes wide in shock.  
  
"Ew, Sango." he muttered, turning around. "Get a room."  
  
"Sango!" the girl reluctantly left the arms of her boyfriend, giving Kagome a fierce hug.  
  
"Kagome!" Sango squealed in delight. "Gods, it's so nice to see the two of you again!" At the mention of the azure-eyed Japanese agent Inuyasha's widened, his body going rigid.  
  
'She's here. What do I do?' the hanyou caught her breathtaking orbs fixed on him before they swept over to Sango again. "I'm glad to see you both made it here ok." Inuyasha muttered, knowing it sounded much more forced than he meant it to.  
  
Kagome looked at him, a small smile gracing her face. She instantly regretted it when a spark of something resembling hope lit up in his ocher eyes. "Sango-chan, we learned English!"  
  
Her magenta-eyed friend blinked, exchanging disbelieving looks with her partner. ". . .You learned English- in three months?!"  
  
"A little project some of the agents are working on. This machine you hook up to when you sleep, the translations are repeated in your sleep and when you wake up you're supposed to be able to speak it."  
  
"I see it works," Sango breathed. "At least the language won't be a problem."  
  
"Yeah, it says NYC alright." Inuyasha confirmed, holding the small piece of technology up to the light one more time with both eyes squint. "What do you think he's up to now?"  
  
Miroku shrugged, "Does S.J.H. mean anything to you?"  
  
Sango slowly shook her head no, "Nothing comes to mind. . .We'll leave it with Ayame and Shippou. Until we can get more leads you can fill Inuyasha and I in."  
  
Inuyasha pocketed the small piece of the fake jewel. With a sigh the four agents left the lab, all four knowing this was going to be a long visit in more than one way.  
  
"Push! Come on, don't give out now! Farther! Farther! Just a little more, hold on. . ." Kouga grunted, sweat dripping off his brow.  
  
"I can't hold it much longer, Ayame. . ."  
  
"Please! One more!" Kouga rolled his eyes. "Just one more push!" Both gave a final groan, Kouga pushing forward with the remains of his strength before they collapsed back onto the carpeted floor.  
  
"You know," Kouga panted, "Maybe we should have taken the folders out of the filing cabinet first."  
  
Both wolf demons blinked, staring wistfully back at the large, bulky black filing cabinet. "Damn it!"  
  
"Are we interrupting something?" Both wolf-like agents started, looking at the door in surprise.  
  
"Inuyasha! Sango!" Ayame looked over at them, the hanyou carried a small smirk. "Could you knock in the near future?"  
  
"I think I'll have to. . ." He winked at her.  
  
"We weren't doing anything!"  
  
"Who said you were?"  
  
"You were insinuating-"  
  
"Calm down, Ayame, I heard the entire conversation half way down the hall." The hybrid waggled his ears, causing both of the sweaty twenty year olds to blush enough to put roses to shame.  
  
"Shut up dog breath." Kouga snapped vehemently.  
  
"Um, so where are Kagome and Miroku?" Ayame managed to choke out, grabbing hold of her desk to pull herself up.  
  
"Ayame?" Sango moved into the room to allow the two agents entrance. Kagome rushed through, giving the girl a fierce hug. "It's great to see you!"  
  
"Kagome-chan!" Both girls squealed like junior high girls, causing all three men to raise their eyebrows and turn to one another. All of them answering each other's unasked questions with shakes of their heads.  
  
Sango smiled, good-naturedly slapping Miroku's shoulder.  
  
"I'm so glad to see you two," the red-haired boss suddenly became serious. "Inuyasha was a bit vague on why you were coming. I need all the details."  
  
Kagome nodded, somewhat hesitantly at the mention of Inuyasha's name. The pain was still there. 'Why am I killing myself over this? It's not like we had a thing or something. . .'  
  
The agents were now situated in a lead-covered room, except for Kagome who had excused herself to go to the bathroom a little while ago.  
  
Said agent was now walking down the hall, looking around curiously at the different agents until she reached the room marked 'Conference Room - Confidential - Do Not Enter.' She opened the door to see the one thing she would rather shake Naraku's hand than do. . .  
  
There was only one seat left. Of course, he was an oblivious guy. Therefore Inuyasha did not seem to notice that the seat next to him was the only one that wasn't occupied by either a youkai or human.  
  
They all turned, following her gaze to the seat. The same thing seemed to be in everyone's mind.  
  
Don't let either one of the two stubborn agents sit anywhere else.  
  
Kagome shifted uncomfortably, eyeing Sango and Ayame for some support. Obviously they were ignoring her because they were both looking purposefully at their boyfriends for the time being. She glared purposefully in their general direction before reluctantly seating herself next to Inuyasha.  
  
The honey-eyed agent looked at her, finding that she was sitting in a way that made it seem she was sitting closer than she really was.  
  
"So, what did you-" the door opened, a boy that looked to be seven entering with a laptop under his arm.  
  
"Sorry I'm late Ayame."  
  
"Aw!" Kagome gushed, "He's so adorable!"  
  
"I'm right here, you know. . ."  
  
"If I didn't know any better I'd think he was your son, you two!" Both wolf oni blushed a bit, the reference to having a child together still a bit awkward.  
  
"I don't really know how to respond to that." Shippou gave a nervous laugh, "I'm Shippou. Expert at the arts of transformation, illusion, and technology." He jumped up, tweaking Inuyasha's left ear, "And the genius who can make these ears go bye-bye."  
  
"It's great to finally meet the culprit of that in person," Miroku smiled, "How old are you?"  
  
The bottle-green eyed kit looked up from setting up his lap top, "I'm fifty- six in human years, eight by demon standards."  
  
"So, you're a kitsune?"  
  
His face suddenly brightened with a proud glow, "Sure am! My ma and pa worked here, but they were killed on assignment. So, I decided to continue our families saga of agents."  
  
"I'm sorry to hear about your family," Kagome wiped a rogue tear from her eye, "Ok, to the problem on hand. . ." Anything to take Miroku and Sango's minds off the loss of families. Shippou, although fifty-six by his parent's standards still seemed oblivious how much he could have affected them.  
  
"Yes," Ayame cleared her throat, "What exactly is going on here?"  
  
Miroku stepped up to the plate, ready to explain to give Kagome some time off. It would be annoying to have to repeat yourself so many times. "Naraku's body wasn't recovered in Japan when the forensic teams sifted through the debris. It could be that he was incinerated, but in cases like this DNA tests are performed. There was no sign of his burnt corpse anywhere."  
  
"Could it have been that he found a way out, then died somewhere in the near forests?" Kouga tossed the idea into the mix.  
  
"I don't think so," Kagome stared off into space, trying desperately not to look at Inuyasha, who was staring at her intensely with his amazing, stunning, golden-  
  
No! She wouldn't think about it!  
  
"Inuyasha and Yura both gave her a few good hits, I don't think he would have been able to escape, not the lack of blood her had at the time."  
  
"What do you mean 'lack of blood'?" Inuyasha finally asked, having been silent long enough. Even if Kagome could only answer a question, she would still be speaking to him.  
  
Needless to say Miroku decided to answer for her, noticing her pleading glances and unlike the girls came to her aid. "The forensics went over everything there with a fine-toothed comb. They discovered a level that most of his assassins didn't even know of apparently. Two dead bodies were uncovered."  
  
'I'm better than this, acting like a child in such an important situation. . .' Kagome berated herself mentally before nodding in agreement to Miroku's comment. "They found many test tubes, most melted or shattered from the heat, that still has remnants of burnt blood. They did find some of Naraku's blood where you said you left him. They used that and sure enough they found that the DNA matched."  
  
"So he was giving his blood to something in a hidden level of his hideout?" Sango looked over at Ayame who shook her head to say she didn't know the answer either.  
  
"The blood was in test tubes, so I would think he was trying to make more clones, not feed anything. On top of that they found plans for new types of bombs using compounds from all over the world that he got via the black market." Kagome watched as Shippou continued typing intensely on his laptop.  
  
"I was in front of the senior agents and tried making a wish. The jewel did nothing other than glow every time it was touched. Later when we were examining it we saw the inscription. S.J.H."  
  
Ayame's eyes widened, "S.J.H?"  
  
There was one page left.  
  
She flipped her bio over.  
  
When you receive these plans, you must be prepared to complete everything under S.J. Before then here is what has already occurred.  
  
Kohaku was given the jewel and since Kagome's mission is to kill the one who carries it she will have taken care of him. Therefore causing the allies to break apart in distrust and anger. The Ramen Co. section will be destroyed to destroy all information. Kikyo, who was visiting, and I will be on the emergency helicopter. The rebellious assassins will also have been detained and killed. All agents will also be taken to the appropriate places. The entire grounds (20 mile radius) will self destruct at 1 p.m.- - -  
  
SJ?  
  
What was that supposed to mean?  
  
"Yeah, does it ring a bell?"  
  
"I'll be right back!" Ayame jumped out of her chair, startling Kouga, and rushed from the room as if she was on fire.  
  
"Where is it?!" Ayame shrieked, flipping through file after file. Finally she came to the one she was after, grabbing it up then slamming the filing cabinet shut.  
  
"Ok!" Ayame burst into the room, triumphantly throwing a manila folder onto the table separating her and her friends.  
  
Silence passed through the room until Sango was brave enough to break it.  
  
"Um, what exactly is ok?"  
  
Ayame abruptly stopped panting, "Read this." Inuyasha and Kagome both reached for the file simultaneously. Her fingers brushed over his, both of them blushing lightly before Inuyasha's hand darted back.  
  
Their hands were basically exercising Hand Etiquette, where the male hand would back away to allow the female's to reach for the object first while both their owner's acted as if nothing was going on.  
  
Sango chuckled, leaning in to see as well.  
  
"The entire grounds. . .self-destruct at 1 p.m.. . .I'll be waiting at the designated spot to get the real thing. . ." Inuyasha looked up, "What's this? Where did you find it?"  
  
"When I was searching Naraku's chopper. . .I found it under the seat and totally forgot about it. I didn't even finish reading it."  
  
"There was a meeting spot. Could that have been where Naraku would have gone could he have moved?"  
  
"With the severe blood loss and injuries I don't think so," Shippou spun his computer around. "Look, based on what you've been saying and how many test tubes you told me were found while Ayame was gone. . .All given recently. . .he would have had to walk at least 25 miles to get out of the area the forensics were in."  
  
"So you're saying someone was in there, got him out, and then got away safely before anyone could get there?"  
  
"That's what I'm saying, Sango." Shippou confirmed with a grim look.  
  
"What about Kikyo?" Inuyasha couldn't breathe for a minute. Kagome, asking a question about Kikyo?  
  
Well, they were sisters, he thought, trying to look nonchalant. "Yeah, you two said that she wasn't there either. And I know that I knocked her out that window."  
  
"But she was a hardy girl, she might not have died. . ." Kagome mused aloud.  
  
"I saw blood everywhere!"  
  
"Even if she got a few cuts on the head she would have been able to bleed enough to cake a few glass shards in blood. She could have gotten away. . ."  
  
"Or she could have been taken by the same person who took Naraku." Inuyasha countered.  
  
Everyone watched in silent happiness at the two debating agents. It seemed nothing had ever happened.  
  
"Or maybe she could have taken Naraku, seeing how I think I did less to her than I did to Naraku. Yura did him in, too."  
  
"Either way both of their bodies where never recovered. So there is something wrong with that picture. We need to talk to some people, get some information."  
  
"Who would know about their meeting place?" Sango piped up.  
  
"Inuyasha knows the place better then we do," Kouga muttered indifferently. "So, Dog-breath, who would know at that place? What are your connections?"  
  
Inuyasha growled at the wolf prince, "They're all dead, smart one. Except for Kagura and Sesshoumaru and their little rogue group."  
  
"I guess we'll have to go talk to them then," Kagome sighed, looking up at the ceiling. "Sango-chan, have they changed at all?"  
  
"Changed back is more like it." Inuyasha murmured. "When I knew them the first time they were like that. Except my brother, he's always been an ass but the others were free spirited, full of humor. It wasn't long after that that they were brainwashed, blackmailed, or threatened by Naraku."  
  
"You'll have to call them, Inuyasha." Shippou advised, "tell them that you'll be there tomorrow."  
  
Sango looked at her watch, "Kohaku should be back from the movie with Joe around now."  
  
"I think we got the gist of it," Ayame nodded positively, "You four are back on the case, just make sure not to be obvious about it. If Naraku and Kikyo are still alive then they pose a threat to us, and if the person in that letter is the new guy like his penname suggests it's even more complicated. . ."  
  
"Aneue!" Kohaku jumped out of Joe's car, rushing over to his sister. "We went to see Kill Bill! Do you know how much BLOOD is in that movie?! A lot!"  
  
"Joe! How could you take him to see that movie?" Sango had switched into mother-mode again.  
  
"Calm down, Sango. The boy's gotta get used to those kind of movies."  
  
"He's right, you know." Inuyasha agreed, leaning back casually on cinderblock garage wall. "He's been under a psychopath's control since he was a little boy, he needs to have some experience in the real world."  
  
"Violence like that is not the real world!"  
  
"For us it is."  
  
"Yeah! You guys are agents, come on sis, you see blood all the time!"  
  
"But you saw it all the time too!" the girl sighed, rubbing her temples. "Whatever, just, next time. . .Inuyasha, you take him."  
  
"What? Me?" Inuyasha blinked, "I'm not good with kids!"  
  
"Don't give me that, children cling to you!" Inuyasha blushed, not noticing Kagome watching from the garage entrance.  
  
"That doesn't mean I know how to hang out with them!" the hanyou barked back. "Cats love people who hate cats, kids love me because I'm not good with 'em."  
  
Kagome gave a watery smile, leaning on the side of wall.  
  
She loved him.  
  
The problem? He didn't feel the same way. She forced herself away from the argument, walking down the corridor to Sango's room. The American agent had thought it would be fun to share a room again, like old times.  
  
Like old times. . .  
  
Like when she had found herself resting on his hoodie, like when they had talked, cracked jokes. . .  
  
With a sigh she flopped down on her bed, staring up at the ceiling.  
  
If he didn't like her, why did he care so much that she wasn't talking to him before he left back to come here?  
  
"I'm just thinking too much," Kagome whispered to the walls, closing her eyes. "I should just get over it, talking to him at all is better than staying silent. . ."  
  
Inuyasha: newscaster voice What caused Inuyasha's jacket to move? Who is SJH? Why don't you know yet? All will be explained next chapter!  
  
Kagome: . . .I dunno. . .  
  
Inuyasha: Me neither.  
  
A quick chapter for the amount of time I took on it. I won't try and type up all the possible excuses. Let me just leave you with this word: School.  
  
Please R&R!  
  
Ja ne  
  
Sakura 


	4. Set Up

****

Mission Completed - Chapter 4

By: Sakura Katsana

__

Disclaimer: It's FANfiction, take a hint.

__

Sakura's Note: Hello everyone!

It seems that almost everyone that ventured out with a guess guessed correctly for who was under the jacket. For everyone who didn't, I won't say it here. You'll find out before a fourth of the chapter is over, so it doesn't really matter anyway. I also decided to stop having ending author's notes for the majority of my chapters because it kind of takes away from the chapter's dramatic ending.

I'm trying to improve my writing skills at the moment, you know, before high school, so you might notice a change in my writing style. I have no idea if it'll be any better than the old one, and glints of my classic style will still shine though. ;; feels insanely pathetic

Onto more interesting topics. . .

When I post this, it will be Saturday, therefore all of my tests and finals will be complete! Monday I graduate, sniff sniff and some of the people I'll never see again. sigh And we're not even off to college yet. . .

But, for you guys, they'll be at LEAST four new stories this summer, all the others will finish by the latest--September, and the updates will be QUICK.

Also I was happy with the feedback from the Kouga and Ayame filing cabinet scene, it got the response I was looking for!

I noticed with the HTML format, sometimes smilies don't come out, so if there are any random colons or anything, you know where they're from.

__

Shout outs:

**__**

Dragon Man 180- I'm guessing Rin was hiding under Inuyasha's jacket. But how would he not hear anyone hiding in fang with his ears?

He was kind of off guard with everything going on, Sesshoumaru and Kagura, him being a God Uncle, SJH, the Shikon Jewel, and Kohaku and Sango excited to see one another again. Plus his usual oblivious self. ; Thanks for the review!

__

Thanks to: Okibi Usagi, Scorpio Angel 3000, Yun Fei, kureejii joshin, eX Driver Liz, Queeney, morlana, firehottie, chandra16, Dragon Man 180, TaintedInuShemeeko, Pitygurl, and xXdArKflAimEXx. Hope I didn't forget anyone.

__

Chapter 4: Set Up

Miroku had long gone with Sango to get some food from random vending machines, leaving Inuyasha alone to mumble and Kagome to cuddle up to a hoodie of unknown origins in peace.

Inuyasha groaned, turning over in protest to the sun. "Not now, Sango. . .Go play with Kirara instead. . ."

Across the hall Kagome blinked away the sleep and the glazed over eyes that came with it. She sat up, looking over at Sango's bed, neatly made, and then the door. "Food. . ." she mumbled, the same way she did when she was five.

She reached out her leg, preparing to get out of bed, only to find herself falling rapidly to the floor. During her nighttime nightmares she's become entangled in her sheets. Every movement she tried to free herself only caused her to get more wrapped up.

Morning irrationality was still with her, causing her mind to jump to conclusions. "I'm gonna die in here! I'll be the first self-wrapped mummy!"

Slowly her state of mind cleared and she emitted a slow, painful-to-the-ears, whine. Obviously she wasn't a morning person. She managed to free her right hand, all she needed to disentangle the rest of her. With a delighted sigh of victory she got up, carelessly if not angrily, throwing her bed sheet back onto her mattress.

As her eyes gradually readjusted to the sunshine, the young agent exited Sango's room, walking down the hall towards the nearest vending machine and then off to find her friends.

A loud, masculine yelp came from across the hall, causing Kagome to jump back against the wall waking her up entirely. "WHAT IN ALL THE HELLS-?!"

She finally registered the voice and dashed down the hall, managing to reach his room right before another run of swearing made her wish for earmuffs. "Inuyasha! Inuyasha are you-" The one thing, if nothing else, that Kagome hated the most about just waking up was the clumsiness. The stormy eyed girl slipped on a racing magazine, sliding right up to the bed.

Seconds later both adults could hear a young girl's giggling, and the squeak of mattress springs as something--rather someone--jumped on the bed.

She searched her memory for the right name, coming to the 'R's before finally realizing. "Rin?" Kagome grabbed onto the bedpost, pulling herself up to Rin's eye level. "What are you doing here? How did you get here?!"

"I was with you, silly!" Rin squealed in delight at her realization, directing her answer to the groggy half demon even though she was still studying Kagome's face intently. "I thought Uncle Yasha would smell me but he didn't! I got you!"

Her twin cinnamon eyes swung over with the rest of her body to Inuyasha, who still had a hand clutching where his heart was.

"You scared me half to death, girl!" Inuyasha breathed, grabbing her around the waist to look him in the eye. "Don't do that again!"

Her giddy look quickly changed to one of terror. "I scared Uncle Inu to _death_?! That means. . .if you're scared again you'll _die_!" Tears welled up under her eyes, slowly splattering onto her uncle's dark blue comforter.

Kagome continued to watch as Inuyasha looked guiltily from Rin to the ceiling, mouthing 'Why me?' to an unknown being. "Rin, don't cry. . .It's ok. It's just an expression, I'm not gonna die-"

"Not YET!" Rin wailed into his bare chest.

"What's going on in here?" Ayame rushed into the room, "I heard a child crying."

Kouga walked in next, a towel wrapped around his shoulders and the front of his t-shirt covered in sweat. "Gods. . .We could hear you from in the gym. What's-" both wolf demons stopped questioning the other pair at the sight of a little girl, her shoulders still bobbing up and down in somewhat silent sobs.

"Isn't that Yura's kid?" Kouga asked, pointing meaninglessly at the little youngster.

Ayame finally rediscovered her voice, "She looks familiar. . ."

"She's my niece." The hanyou sighed, patting the girl on her back. "Kagura and Sesshoumaru got married. And since they're her god parents she calls me her uncle. . ."

"How'd she get here?"   
  
"She says under a jacket."

"Aw!" Ayame squealed in delight. "Rin is so adorable!"

Inuyasha made an effort to smile, perking up when he heard his niece sniffle, showing she was stopping.

"Hey, Rin, are you ok now?" Kagome cooed, poking the girl playfully in the side. Obviously, by the way the girl laughed, she was.

In the blink of an eye she was standing behind the half demon, tugging at his ears in classic child adoration.

The redhead squealed again, tugging on her still half asleep boyfriend's arm. "I want one!"

"We're not even _engaged_ yet!" Kouga objected, terror written all over his face.

". . .why is that?"

"Um. . ." Kouga shuffled around for the right words.

"You're taking too long." Ayame huffed.

"We've been dating for three months!"

"Are you saying you forgot about all the time when we were in Tokyo?" he could sense the tears forming, working their way through her body into her tear ducts.

"No! I mean, consistently. Recently! I could never forget about all the time we were together. You know that, Ayame."

Kagome looked wistfully at the couple, silently wishing it could be her and Inuyasha standing there, arguing over children.

"Come on, I'll go grab us some of the food from a vending machine." Kouga soothed, Ayame perking up instantaneously. His woman was not a fancy food kind of girl, she preferred York Peppermint Patties over a box of heart shaped chocolates and Trolli Worms over Escargot.

"Ok. . ." she leaned into him. Right before he steered her into the hall she gave another 'aw', "It's not really safe for her to be wandering around in the agency. You should call your brother to let him know where she is."

"I have a feeling he already knows," Inuyasha said annoyed. "He didn't think that she'd been wandering around aimlessly for a day or so before she decided to jump on me, yell in my ear, and tug on my hair to alert me of her presence."

Kouga cracked a smile, "I gotta admit, she is cute. See you three later."

"Uh huh," Kagome tickled Rin's cheek, totally forgetting about the awkward position she was in; kneeling on Inuyasha's floor, in her pajamas and fuzzy pink slippers, five inches from his face playing with his 'niece'.

Finally the hybrid yawned, catching Rin as she tripped over the covers. "Where's Kohaku. . .? I think he'd been happy to see you."

Kagome blushed, trying to wave the redness in her cheeks off as personal space issues. "I guess it'd be alright to leave her with him."

"No!" Rin wailed, clutching onto the hanyou's neck.

"Come on, Rin. It's too dangerous to be hanging around us right now. We're after some bad people," Inuyasha tugged at the girl, expecting his demonic strength to be enough to pull her off.

He was wrong.

"Gods, girl. You've got me in a death grip!" Inuyasha clenched his teeth, giving another gentle yank, only resulting in the little tyke gripping on tighter.

This was going to be a long day.

* * *

"Kagome!" Sango jumped up from the table, tearing herself away from her bagged, ready-to-eat calories-I'll-regret-tomorrow on the table. "Where have you been? Where's Inuyasha?"   
  
"Right here," he grunted, walking in like nothing was wrong.

The couple gawked at him, Miroku blinking in surprise. "Um, Inuyasha-"

"I have a midget around my neck, I know." The ginger-eyed girl giggled, showing her first-rate arm strength. She had to have some demon blood running through her veins to hold on this long.

"Um, isn't that-"

"Rin? Yes." Sango opened her mouth with a questioning look on her face, but was cut to the quick by her best friend, "She says she was hiding out in my jacket on the way back yesterday."  
"Well, you're grumpy this morning. . ." Sango muttered, plopping back down next to Miroku to finish off her water bottle. "Sleep well?"

"Slept well, woke up _bad_." the magenta-eyed agent nodded, mouthing an 'O'. "Have you spoken to Sesshoumaru yet?"

". . .No." Inuyasha grumbled, staring down at a clawed finger. Personally, he was dreading the call more than anything. It seemed weird to be calling a brother he'd barely ever spoken to before about something this important.

"Well, you should go do that. We have to start looking for leads, hit the alleys and local bars." Sango aimed for the recycling bin, tossing her empty water bottle--stuffed with candy wrappers and chip bags--in perfectly. Miroku, trying to keep his self-image, aimed and tossed, his trash bouncing off the rim of the bin and onto the tiled floor.

Grumbling about distance injustice he went off in search of more junk food to tide them over until lunch as Inuyasha was practically forced to dial Sesshoumaru's number.

* * *

Kagome sat cross-legged on her bed, turning page after page of Sango's CDs, forcing herself not to alert Sango that she knew she was studying her. She wasn't stupid, she knew what was whizzing through her attached friend's mind. As long as she continued to stare and not to speak everything would be fine. . .

"Kagome?" the agent took no notice of her friend's shoulders go rigid. Figuring that this would break the ice on the subject, she continued. "I noticed you two seemed to have buried the hatchet, so to speak. Or bury the Kikyo, as the case may be."

The younger of the two girls had to laugh at that, although it was somewhat halfhearted. "It's just, when I get near him I sometimes forget about what happened in Tokyo. . . I tend to get caught up in the moment, not able to stop myself."

"Not a good thing to do around a hot guy like Inuyasha."

"Sango!"   
  
"What? Next to Miroku he's as good as it gets! And that's saying a _lot_." Sango placed the teddy bear her loving boyfriend had gotten her back onto her bed, smiling at it lovingly. "You know that as well as I do."

"Seriously, Sango. All humor aside here, I want to show that I'm mad at him, but every time I see those two honey colored orbs. . .I just melt."

"Just what I thought." the pomegranate-eyed girl nodded sagely, quickly reverting back to girl talk mode.

"What? What have you thought?" Kagome ordered anxiously.

"Well," Sango gave a sly grin, "sounds to me like L-O-V-E."

"You told me that before you left Tokyo, it doesn't mean it's mutual."

Sango laughed out of disbelief, "Are you friggin' kidding me?"

"I'm serious!" Kagome said assertively, sighing when her mattress sank down beneath Sango. "He can't. . ."

"Why not?" Sango grasped her friends shoulders, shaking them enough to knock some sense into her, "Why can't he love you? Is it that hard to believe?"

Kagome couldn't look her friend in the eye. If she did she might see something that, no matter how much she wanted it, could also hurt her. She might as well voice her feelings to the one person she could trust as much as Miroku.

"Kagome?"

"If he does love me. . .what if it's because I remind him of my sister? I'd never know." She felt her hands being held tightly, a reassuring squeeze being administered before she was given the fiercest hug she'd received in a while.

"Don't ever say that, Kag. He's not like that. He wouldn't love anyone because of who they remind him of. If he loves you its because you found a way to unfreeze his heart that's been broken more than once before. Since he was fifteen his love life hasn't had an ounce of luck." Sango gave a humorless laugh, "Neither has mine. I was engaged to Juuroumaru for goodness sakes! Hey, why are you crying?"

"It's all so complicated. . ." Kagome murmured, resting her head on Sango's shoulder as a younger sister would to her senior. "There are too many ifs involved."

"Who ever said love was easy? I was lucky how fast Miroku and I realized, but some people never do. You were given a second chance!" She pulled her rustled hair over her shoulder, "I could sit here and say he loves you a million times. But until you admit it to each other it'll never amount to anything but pain."

Sango patted Kagome on the back, standing up. "Ok?"

There was a pause. Sango began to worry all her experience in love wasn't helping then she heard a vague answer. "What?"

"Ok." Kagome nodded, wiping the tears that had filled her eyes away, leaving her mascara slightly smeared.

"Good."

* * *

Inuyasha laid back in bed, staring over at his calendar in a very dedicated trance.

Eighty-five, eighty-six, eighty-seven. . .ninety days. He'd gone ninety days without seeing her, or hearing her voice. The hanyou quickly shook his head, coming back to reality and back to the file in his hands.

A list of all the most recent black market trades, given to him by Kagura.

Any other time he might have reported her for still being involved in such a thing, but seeing how they were now related he couldn't find it in him.

He cringed at the memory of the phone call to his brother, which had been so awkward Sesshoumaru had the phone grabbed away from his ear by his wife. Next thing Inuyasha knew he was talking to his sister-in-law, getting the information faxed over, and then answering over twenty questions about Rin to her mother.

He turned the page, his eyes greeted by another page full of 9 point font, single-spaced, virtually margin-less, black market items and who had purchased them. "You know, with this we could arrest half of the Yakuza clan, Mafia, MS13, and basically every other deadly gang out there?"

Miroku looked up from his copy of Naraku's final note, "How many pages have you gone through?"

"Nine."

"How many are there?" Miroku asked with a chuckle at his friend's bloodshot eyes.

"Twenty," Inuyasha grumbled, "How about you finish reading a few of these pages, continue marking down all the SJH activity and I'll-"

"Go tell Kagome you're madly in love with her?"

"Yes." He answered triumphantly, only to do a double take a minute later. "I mean, NO! Miroku, what the-"

The perverted agent crossed his arms over his chest, nodding slowly to feign wisdom. "I speak only the truth, my young friend."

"_Young?_ I'm older than you!"

"In love, I'm a hundred years older than even your _father_, Inuyasha."

"So basically. . ." Inuyasha drawled, "You're over four hundred years old?"

Miroku gaped at the hanyou, detecting only dead serious energy radiating from him. ". . .Let's try demon years."

"So you're fifty seven." Inuyasha mumbled from behind the massive list of trades.

"Much better. Wait-" the hybrid looked up from scanning the tenth sheet. "How old are you, you know, in human years?"

". . .Twenty-one." Inuyasha answered, right before muttering, "Hey, this guy owes me money!" he quickly jotted down the Yakuza's name and address.

"But that would mean you're-" Miroku began doing mental math, quickly looking back in shock at the hanyou. "-three years old?!"

Inuyasha gave his fellow agent a truly deadpan look, then, without a word walked over and smacked him on the head. "If I've known Sango since we were toddlers I think I'm older than that! Hanyou's age the same as humans, they have no demon years, idiot!"

"Ow!" Miroku whined, rubbing the swelling bump on his head, "That hurt!"

"And hopefully it knocked some sense into you!" Inuyasha retorted, crossing his own arms.

"All this for saying you're three years old?"

Silence.

Miroku looked at the hanyou, his arm slowly falling back to his side. "That's not what this is about, is it?"

"Can we please get back to the important stuff here? We need to hit the local gangs, see what they know. Research!" Inuyasha slapped his packet of info for emphasis, "This is what's eminent here."

"Not when love is involved," Miroku sang, setting his folder aside. "And stop changing the subject. I know I should be expecting another smack to the head, but I don't think you will. You're in the world that is Kagome at the moment."

"What are you spouting now? I swear you're like a fountain that never shuts off!" Inuyasha collapsed back on his bed.

"Kagome's said that exact same thing. You two have a lot more in common than you think." Miroku ignored the glares Inuyasha shot him and began to rub his chin in thought. "Sango said you two would make a cute couple."

"Who would make a cute couple?" Both men looked at their door, where Kohaku stood with Rin holding onto his hand.

"No one!" Inuyasha barked, causing Kohaku to take a step back and a knowing smile that must have run in Sango's family to appear on his face.

"Kagome and Inuyasha."

"Why you-" the hanyou looked over at Rin, who was waiting expectantly for him to finish his sentence. "-very _funny_, funny guy. Making all these jokes to try and lighten the mood."

"Oh yeah. I agree." Kohaku nodded, returning to the subject and unmindful of his sister's shocked hanyou friend. "Rin dragged me here, think you can watch her? Sango wanted to see me and seeing how she's tired. . ."

"No problem," Miroku nodded, smiling at the little girl. She blushed at the gesture, running over to Inuyasha. He had to admit, the little girl was growing on him.

Kohaku nodded his thanks, heading off down the hall to see his big sister.

"Does everyone here know about my personal life?" Inuyasha asked his niece, falling onto his back. He tried to hide his smirk when Rin mimicked him, even copying his sigh and blowing the hair out of her eyes.

"I think so," she nodded, trying to sound as grown-up as she could.

Both men had to laugh at that, watching as Yura's little girl fell asleep soundly.

* * *

Kagome looked up from a list of places she would be visiting that day. The list had been contributed by Sango, who said that she'd be able to handle those places, considering she was from Japan.__

Some of Japan's gangs could put those from New York to shame, she'd said proudly.

"We should start asking around tonight, none of them are out at this time of day." Sango clicked her mouse, bringing up a side view of the jewel fragment. "It looks like Shippou was right after all. . ."

The Japanese agent made her way across the room, sitting down next to Sango. "You mean there are fingerprints on it?"

"Yep." Sango motioned at a small circled area of the screen. "Actually, only one, but if whoever owns them is in the national birth records we're well on our way to figuring this out."

Kagome could harden contain her anticipation, jumping up to keep from acting totally insane. If she stayed still too long she'd go crazy. "How long will it take?"

The older girl's jubilant expression was squashed the second she glanced at the screen. "It says seven hours."

"Seven _hours_?! What the hell is it looking through?"

"Calm down, Kag-chan. . ." Sango ran a hand through her hair, displeased. "We'll just come back from chatting it up with a few gangs and see that our hard work has paid off in more than one way."

The young and nervous agent nodded to the air, looking back down forlornly at her list. She had to visit six different ones. Sango had even been thoughtful enough to include a map with color coded circles, showing the different areas they inhabited.

What Kagome couldn't understand was why she was going out alone, in a city she'd just gotten to, to talk to gangs. But, Sango hadn't seemed the least bit nervous giving her the task, and that _really_ made her uneasy.

__

"I know you can do it, Kagome-chan. Look at it this way, you're getting a free tour of New York and you get to harass outlaws the entire time! It's like killing two birds with one stone."

"Come on, Kagome." Sango motioned for her to follow out the door, her own list in hand.

* * *

Sango looked over casually, noticing Kagome's vexed look. It wasn't only her face that gave her away, there was also the twiddling of her fingers and the nervous tapping of her foot. These were all very subtle ways of showing her anxiety, what for, Sango was pretty sure of.

She knew what Kagome was thinking. . .

She was worried that she was being left in the middle of one of America's fastest cities alone. In fact, it was rather insulting that the younger agent had thought she would leave her out there as shark bait this entire time.

Her pomegranate eyes darted back to the road, finally entering the busy streets of New York city. She muttered under her breath, tapping the wheel of the her car impatiently. "You know, in front of all these cars there's that _one_ car that is driving so slow and holding everyone else up. I mean, why else would it be this congested all day and night?"

"I think you're right." Kagome agreed, abandoning her nervous habits. "It must be that way in Tokyo too."

"They should find that one Granny-driver and make them speed up." Sango continued, gradually bringing her friend back from Fretfuland.

"Seriously." Kagome looked over at Sango, who was trying very hard to keep her eyes on the road, before opening her mouth to speak.

"Hey Kagome," Sango quickly cut her off, "Can you look back there and make sure that Rin's not hiding in here? I know Kohaku got her out of my car and Fang but I still can't shake the feeling someone's back there."

"Uh, sure." Kagome shrugged, unbuckling her seatbelt and climbing back halfway to move around the agent's different weapons and clothing items. "How long have you been _neglecting_ this car?"

Sango blushed with embarrassment, "Since Inuyasha finished working on Fang. After that this simple little agency bought car seemed a little simplistic."

Kagome nodded, picking up the final magazine from five years ago. "Yeah, when I first saw his car you wouldn't _believe _how jealous I-"

"Kagome, sit back down NOW."

"Huh? Why?"

"Just do it." she seemed serious enough. The stormy-eyed girl eased back into her seat, mindful of the low top of the car.

"What's wrong?" following Sango's glare she got her answer.

Three men, Kagome's guess was in their late 30's, sat there, staring at her through the windshield, degenerated smiles on their faces. One even had out a camera.

"PERVERT!" Kagome screamed, beginning to think up every insult she had ever heard. With one swift movement the door was unlocked, open, and Kagome was cursing directly at their car in the middle of the traffic standstill.

"Oi, Kagome-chan. . ." Sango shook her head, trying to look embarrassed. But actually, it was all she could do not to laugh.

* * *

"So you have your list?"

"Uh huh."

"And you're gonna _try_ not to beat up too many people?"

"Uh huh."

"Inuyasha."

"Uh huh."

"Are you even listening to me?"

"Uh huh."

Miroku sighed, looking heedlessly out the window, across at Saks Fifth Avenue, and _casually_ gazing at the bottoms of many New York women. "Nope, none of them are as good."

"What are you talking about, Miroku?" Inuyasha glanced over at the man, "Oh gods, Miroku! You're going out with Sango, you can't look at other women like that! Pervert!"

"Hey! I was only comparing!" Miroku argued, "Like I said, none of them are as good as Sango's. . ."

"Thanks for sharing."

"You can't sit there and tell me you haven't compared other women to Kagome." Miroku stated in monotone, watching in amusement when the hanyou's cheeks flared. "Ah, so you have."

"Shut up."

"Nope."

It was the hybrid's turn to sigh, "You never give up, do you?"

"Nope."

Suddenly Inuyasha pounded his foot on the brakes, causing Miroku to fly forward, inches from the windshield. "We're here!" He announced eerily cheerfully.

* * *

"We're here!" Sango squealed, coming to a halt in front of a bar. The sounds of yelling and drunken men flowed out to them. "Ok, you have your cell phone to call with any results. I've already made it so when you press 7 you get me, and 1 Inuyasha."

"How convenient. . ." Kagome drawled, staring down at the '1' on the phone.

"Ain't it?" Sango smiled, "Good luck. And don't take any crap from _anyone_ in there. I shouldn't worry, you can take care of yourself, right?"

* * *

"Alright, I'll see you soon then. Call if ya find anything." Miroku nodded that he understood, heading towards the location of the first gang site.

Inuyasha looked down at his paper, "Where's Sango telling me to go. . ." he murmured.

* * *

Kagome walked through the entrance of the bar, instantly met with the smells of alcohol, smoke, and the pungent scents of various body odors. But, above all else, was the faint aroma of Windex and Lysol.

What a pleasant place.

Kagome cleared her throat softly, putting on a tough expression and walking towards the bar. There were a few catcalls, and some very repelling offers, none of which Kagome was fazed by. These men were desperate and anyone who looked at them could tell. She had no use of them unless they were the gang on her list, or someone that could tell her something of importance.

The bartender was working away, washing the grime from some shot glasses. With a sly smile Kagome walked over, sitting down on a free barstool. "Excuse me, have you seen any of the Untouchables around here?"

The gruff man looked up at her from his current glass, eyeing her irritably. "Who the hell wants to know?"

"Well, I am the one asking." Kagome retorted, making sure to keep her cool. One wrong move and half of the bar could be on her.

Not that she couldn't handle it.

"A smart one, huh?" He gave a laugh, "You're not fooling me. I know you're the cops. We don't take to them being in here, sweetheart."

Her pearly-gray eyes stared at him with a firm gaze, "Then I must be in big trouble. . ." Kagome motioned for him to come closer, "Because I'm not wearing a badge."

"It don't prove a thing, missy." He filled up a beer glass, sliding it across the table to reach a man at the end of the bar. "There's not a way in hell that you can prove it."

Kagome nodded in understanding, "Well, thank you for your time. I'd ask for a beer, but at the look of this dump I'd probably get some rare disease." she tossed a glass into the air, balancing it on one finger upon its return. "You should fix this place up, I might just have to call in the authorities to clean up for you."

"Wait!" he immediately looked nervous, signaling her to come closer. "They're here, but if you say you found out from me then I'm dead."

"Deal."

"See the man in the corner?" Kagome glanced over fleetingly, giving a curt nod when she looked back. "He's the only one of them in tonight. He was talking on his phone earlier, but now he's just sitting there."

"Thanks." Kagome gave him a generous smile, causing him to turn a light shade of cherry.

"You know, if you're not busy _after_ you talk with 'em, and you're still alive. . .You can always come back to my place and-she's gone."

The raven-haired girl calmly made her way towards the table, _Ok Kagome, you're doing great. Just see if he has any information and then leave._

The man caught her eye, looking up at her from a laptop. He held something in his eye, like curiosity mixed with knowing. "So, you're a cop. What else is new?"

Kagome smirked, sliding into the booth casually. "No, just someone looking for a man who owes me." His eyes reminded her of coffee. What she'd give for it right now. . .

"Typical story. You gotta be a bit more convincing, babe." He went back to his business, finding it incredibly annoying that she wasn't talking.

"I made him something a little while back, heat conductive, heat sensitive. Top of the line." she noticed the typing had stopped, but continued to look off into space. "The perfect imitator to the Sacred Jewel. You know, the Shikon? Well, he took it--without paying--and now I heard he's here."

"And who would this _he_ be, babe?"

"Goes by the name SJH." The laptop was snapped shut abruptly, and Kagome found herself an inch away from the man's face.

"I've heard of 'em."

"Now we're getting somewhere. . ." Kagome reached under the table, pressing a button hidden in her jacket lining. "What can you tell me about him? Where can I find him?"

"You already know he goes by SJH, not many know his real name. I only know him by association." he lowered his voice another three notches until she could barely hear him. "He came over around three or four months ago."

A couple of women walked by, distracting him from answering her question. He quickly continued, causing Kagome to roll her eyes.

"They say he's trying to be better than that guy back in Japan somewhere."

"Tokyo?"

"Yeah, that's the place. Naraku I think his name was. But he has a big interest in the Shikon Jewel, tried hiring my boss to find it for him. When the leader refused he tried to kill him, but who can touch the Untouchables?" The man gave a dark laugh, "That's all I know. He never gave out a location, and he was never the one to talk to us first on the phone. All phones he used were traced back underwater after he used them, too."

Kagome got up, "If you find out anything else, let me know."

"How's that even possible?" he eyed her, "I know you're a cop. Just as long as you don't come after us, you'll be safe."

"You'll see me around." She winked, walking towards the exit of the bar.   
  
The man quickly pulled out his cell phone, dialing a number and waiting as it rang three times. "Yeah, it's me. Look, we got a woman after him, boss. No, doesn't seem to be a cop." his eyes followed her to the door. "Looks more like one more person he pissed off wanting her money."

* * *

Inuyasha dusted off his hands, leaving the bar contentedly, unlocking Fang from his key chain and sliding inside. The engine turned and he pulled off the side of the busy street, heading down a back road to avoid the traffic.

Not a single piece of information that could help them, only a bar fight--that he of _course_ hadn't started--that had kept him busy for thirty minutes until he had taken care of all of them.

He looked down at his list, the next was a bar about a block away. The Young Guns supposedly liked to hang out there before a big kill.

He turned the corner, zooming down the empty side street towards the next gang infested area of the night.

* * *

Sango sighed, rubbing her temples. She walked out of the alley with only a scratch on her arm, seeing Miroku leaving the bar across the street.

They were in the shadiest part of town, and surprisingly everyone they talked to didn't know anything but the name and the same offer.

SJH had asked them for a favor, but they had all declined. The question was, why? He was offering them generous amounts of money, just to do something. Weren't gangs always looking for a way to earn money?

Sango slid back into the drivers seat of the car, unlocking the door for Miroku.

"Any luck?"

Miroku shook his head. "Do you think Inuyasha and Kagome have found anything yet?"

"I don't even know if they've met up with each other yet." Sango admitted, "I made it so they'd each reach a different place first, then run into one another at a bar a few minutes from both places they were in."

"Playing matchmaker is tiring," Miroku groaned, leaning back and reaching for Sango's list. "I don't even know how you came up with the idea in the first place."

"They're my best friends and they're meant for each other. You forget that I'm creative when the time calls for it."

Miroku smirked, grabbing her hand before she could turn the key in the ignition. "That's yet another reason I love you." Sango blushed, looking into his eyes for a moment.

"I love you too."

They both leaned in, stealing a moment for themselves.

* * *

Kagome looked back at the door, she could feel something. She didn't know what, the feeling someone was coming. . . Of course that was superstitious mumbo jumbo, stuff you don't worry about on the job.

She ordered a coke, glad for a clean looking bar slash restaurant. The entire place had a wine colored motif, a single waitress walking around to tables to get people's orders. It wasn't what she would call fancy, but it was above the dirt and grime level.

Street music played in the background, attracting a younger crowd. All in all the place's theme was all over the place.

The woman came back over with her soda, naturally in a red tumbler, with a smile. "Anything else?"

"Not right now." Kagome smiled, looking back at the door suspiciously.

"Got stood up?"

The agent's head shot up instantly, "What?"

"I've seen looks like that before, the one girl's get when they've been stood up by some jerk." she seemed to be speaking from experience. "I'm right, aren't I?"

"No, I'm not waiting for anyone." Kagome looked down into her soda, watching her reflection thoughtfully.

"Well, I'm glad. I'd hate to see it happen to you." the waitress smiled, leaving Kagome with her thoughts as she made her way down the bar, jotting down orders.

* * *

Inuyasha pulled off the road, parking in front of the bar. With one look he could tell he'd been there before, "Abi's place. . ." he slapped his forehead, asking God why Sango--his best friend--could have sent him to this bar.

Asking himself why he was scared of this woman, he got out and locked the silver sports car. It beeped, showing it was locked just as he grabbed hold of the door handle.

* * *

Kagome gave the bar another once over, not seeing anyone that resembled any type of gang member. Maybe they weren't there yet, maybe they were still out ransacking jewelry stores.

Just as she was about to leave she heard a drunken remark made by a man at the end of the bar, then the sound of crashing glass.

Upon looking she saw the familiar face of the waitress, cursing out the man and his group of friends as they hooted heartlessly. She noticed blood trickling down from a cut in her leg and hand. Kagome glared at them with discontent, jumping over the table to the woman's aid.

By the time she got there, which was only a matter of seconds, two of the men were sprawled out on the floor, sure to don very black bruises the next morning.

"Are you ok?" Kagome grabbed the woman's hand, examining it to see a glint of glass still embedded in the flesh. "We have to get this out before it gets deeper."

"I'll be fine, just some tap water from the back. . ." the woman shot the remaining men a glare, "Get out of here before I get back."

They all hastily left, almost forgetting their unconscious friends.

"They never cease to amaze me. . ." she murmured, "This time I'm banning them."

"You mean they've done this before?" Kagome stated, taken aback.

"In this business you put up with most of them to get the money." the waitress replied, hissing as Kagome dabbed at the cut with some liquor.

The stormy-eyed agent nodded, she could understand some of what she was saying. "I'm Kagome by the way."

"Abi."

"Hold on, I have to take this out." Kagome grabbed up a napkin, getting a hold on the shard of glass and gently extracting it. She could hear Abi take a quick breath and knew how it felt. She'd had more than one piece of glass cut into her before.

Kagome then tended to the much less severe cut on her leg, wrapping it with a cloth napkin. "I didn't see any of these out there. . ."

"I don't use them out there often, only when someone important comes. Like while the leader of the Young Guns comes in."

That instantly caught Kagome's interest. "Have they come in here today?"

"Nope, the napkins are still clean. And free of very generous tips." Abi smiled at the thought. "They put me through college without even knowing it." She gave a jovial laugh. "Hey, can you do me a favor? I have to try and get this blood out of my blouse. . .I know it's a lot to ask, and you barely know me, but can you stand guard, make sure no one leaves without paying?"

"Sure," Kagome nodded, giving a comforting smile.

"Thanks." Abi looked down at her shirt sleeve, quickly turning on the hot water.

The agent walked out to the bar, giving the place a once over. It didn't look like anyone had come or gone yet, the same people were sitting down, helping themselves to the food in front of them.

"'Scuse me, can I get a beer?"

"Um, right away!" Kagome grabbed up a glass, scanning the assortment of different colored levers. When she found the correct nozzle and filled the tumbler to the brim she tried her hand at sliding it down the table. With one eye closed she mentally celebrated when it reached the man like in the movies, him nodding thanks before downing it in one gulp.

With that, the man paid and left, obviously not one to get insanely drunk before he decided it was enough.

"Um, Abi?"

"Yeah?" her voice seemed frustrated, she could tell the blood wasn't coming out.

"Where's the cash register?"

There was a quick laugh, "I totally forgot to tell you!" The ruby-eyed woman came out from the back, "It's right there. I'll be right back, it's not coming out, so I gotta go get another shirt from my car."

"Alright." Kagome nodded, bending down underneath the counter to work with the lock.

"Hey, can I get a beer?"

"Um, sure. Hold on. . ." Kagome made a proud gesture, finally able to open the lock, and jammed in the cash. "What'll it. . .be?" She found her staring at a pair of honey globes, outwardly shocked. "Inuyasha?"

"What the hell are you doing here?" Inuyasha hissed, giving her a swift scan, "And why are you pretending to be a bar tender?"   
  
"What are you talking about? Sango gave me this list to go to _these_ places. Abi just needed a hand real quick-"

"Abi?" Inuyasha looked around frantically, "You mean she's here?"

"Well, yeah." Kagome rolled her eyes, pointing to the back, "She got some blood on her shirt, so she had to go get a new one. What d'you mean? You know her?"

He looked at her grudgingly, studying her for a moment as if debating if it was wise to tell her. "We have a. . .history." He turned, ready to run out the door. "Do you have all the info you can get out of her?"

Kagome nodded numbly, looking down at a familiar paper in his hand. "Where'd you get that?"

"What do you mean where? I got it from Sango, of course. Keh, what's with the third degree anyway?" He crossed his arms defiantly, along with setting his jaw.   
  
"Because it looks a lot like mine," Kagome caught a large beer glass before it slid off the table, grabbing the somewhat soggy payment from inside before beginning to scrub it. If she had been paying attention she would have noticed a glint of approval in the hanyou's gold orbs at her quick reflexes.

"Meet me at Fang when she comes back, I'm not going to start nothing I don't need to." Inuyasha shrugged his shoulders, his spine cracking at the action, before heading out of the bar.

* * *

__

So she was helping out Abi. . . Inuyasha got into Fang, reclining casually as he glanced back into the restaurant. _Even though she's so busy, she could still find time to help someone she just met. _He didn't even notice the small smile playing at his lips, _She's always been so considerate._

He quickly shook the thoughts of her out of his head, only to find them replaced by Miroku's words from earlier that day.

__

You can't sit there and tell me you haven't compared other women to Kagome.

"This is going to be a long night."

* * *

Kagome continued to stare at the vacant door, not even hearing someone order another Budweiser. "Kagome?" The young woman looked behind her somewhat startled, her stormy orbs meeting with Abi's ruby ones.

"Y-yes?"

The young owner of the bar looked around suspiciously, eyeing all the booths and barstools with caution. "I thought I heard. . ."   
  
Kagome looked around to humor her, "What'd you hear?"

Abi ran a well-manicured hand through her hair, "Never mind. I thought I heard someone I knew, but I guess I didn't." Kagome nodded, interrupted from the gesture by Abi hastily turning around again. "On second thought, did a guy come in just now? Silver hair, too perfect to be a dye job, golden eyes to pure to be contacts. You know, one in a million?"

By the way she'd just described him, Kagome could tell that there in fact _had_ been a relationship once. Inuyasha had said it, but she had tried blocking it out, denying that she had met yet another person that was luckier with him than she was.

"Kagome? This is the second time you spaced out, sure you didn't take a few extra nips while I was gone?"

The agent laughed it off, "No, I didn't see anyone like that." She noticed a few people she thought to be regulars give her a glance but said nothing. A new song began, reminding her she had someone waiting to talk to her outside. Kagome looked down at her watch, feigning shock, "I'm gonna be late if I don't leave now."

"Alright," Abi nodded, looking a little down. "Thank you, for everything. Be sure to come back one day, and if you're ever looking for a job then you know where to come first."

Kagome gave her a gracious smile, "Alright. I will. And if I ever _am_ looking for a job, you'll be the first to know." Even though her pension alone after she retired would be enough for ten years without lifting a finger she still silently swore to keep the offer in mind.

She left, realizing just how cold it had become since she had went in. Kagome pulled her collar up around her neck, banishing the cold air from her chest. When she saw the one of a kind silver car across the street she rushed across, mindful that Abi might still be watching.

"Hey."

The nineteen year old whirled around, surprised to see him outside the car. She whapped him on the chest, "Don't do that! You scared me!"

"Well I wasn't going to wait around in my car forever. I had to get some fresh air." He scratched his arm, alerting Kagome to the fact that he was sleeveless.

"Where is your jacket?!" She cried, her voice full of worry. "You're going to catch a cold, pneumonia, the flu!" The entire time the hanyou only looked up at the sky, asking wordlessly why him? "Are you even listening to me?"

"Are you even listening to yourself?" Inuyasha retorted, grabbing the girl's arm. "People like me don't get cold, baka." The way he said baka made it sound like he didn't mean it, so she let it go--most of it.

"What do you mean _people like you_?" Kagome gave him a once over, "If you mean agents that's wrong, I'm freezing!"

"For your information, I didn't mean agents. Now come on, get in the car before you turn into some femme fatale Popsicle. Aw, damn. Miroku's words are rubbing off on me. . ."

"What did you mean, then?"

Inuyasha stopped thinking, looking at the girl instead pointedly. "For an agent, you sure don't know when to stop, do you?" Kagome gave him a fixed stare, making him a bit awkward under her gaze.   
  
She heard a low, mumbled, sentence. "Sorry, I couldn't hear that."

"I was talking about half breeds!" he snapped, starting the engine. "Now get in and explain to me what you were talking about in Abi's place."

Kagome complied, "Just one more question--"

"Gods woman! What now?" she didn't even flinch, she just looked at the ceiling, noticing that since she had been gone he had added sunroof.

"Why did you seem so ashamed to say it?"

Inuyasha turned up the heat, making wonderful bursts of heat warm up Kagome's feet. "Say what?"

"Half breed." she saw the way he slightly flinched at the word, although not much.

"You wouldn't know anything about it. Shiori might, but not you." Inuyasha decided to look out the sunroof as well, watching as the stars popped up here and there.

"But I thought I heard you say it before," Kagome interjected, looking over at him. He refused to look over at her, instead glaring at the stars as if wishing they would save him.

"You heard me say half demon, hanyou, not half breed." Inuyasha looked to the left of the sky, managing to see Orion's Belt. "I didn't even mean to say it now, it just came out. So drop it ok?"

Kagome grew silent, lost in her own thoughts.

"Now tell me what you were talking about when you said my list looked familiar." he said gruffly, pulling out of his parking space and onto the now somewhat busy street. At this time of night even the most deserted alleys and quiet New York streets became traffic jams. Kagome could see Abi's place filling up by the second now.

Kagome pulled out her own list, taking his when he offered it. "I'm gonna _kill_ Sango!"

Inuyasha looked over at the girl, then scanned both sheets. "We were set up."

"And they're probably off somewhere beating people up together. . ." Kagome sighed, "I wish I had someone to fight next to like that. . ." She could have bitten her tongue off for saying it, for thinking it out loud, but instead she chose to freeze, watching to see how Inuyasha would take it.

After a moment he coughed, building up his courage. The tension in the car was getting heavier, both thinking the other meant something by their actions. He was always one to work well under pressure, and now was the perfect time. . .

"Well, maybe one day soon you'll have that."

Her breath caught in her throat from the piercing gaze he was giving her. The stormy eyed girl quickly recovered, whispering 'yeah' before Fang took off at full speed down the back street, heading towards their newest destination.


	5. Thank Her Later

****

Mission Completed - Chapter 5

By: Sakura Katsana

__

Disclaimer: If you think, even for a minute, that I own Inuyasha . . .you shouldn't be operating heavy machinery.

Sakura's Note: Hi everyone! There are always excuses, but I think the fact that I'm incredibly swamped by things to do is always overused. So, please just accept my apologies about it, I wish I could just sit and type half the time. I'm going this weekend with my best friend to Hershey Park on Saturday so I wanted to post this before I left.

Also, even though I took forever to get this chapter out, it was partially from lack of inspiration (commonly known as writer's block) and so it is a short chapter. I promise to try and make the next chapter longer. It probably will be due to action and long awaited Inu/Kag fluffy goodness.

Thanks to: TaintedInuShemeeko, chandra16, firehottie, Dragon Man 180, eX Driver Liz, swimchick1614, WhiteRaven040, msih-serenity, trixie-trix, and Queeney. The reviews, as always, made me smile and giggle like a lovesick girl. (yes, I know, odd)

Enjoy!

==========================================================

__

Chapter 5: Thank Her Later

==========================================================

Inuyasha drummed his fingers on the leather steering wheel. "Your turn."

They were working together, something she never thought would happen again. Kagome thought that when she saw him in Japan would be the last time she ever laid eyes on his face. She didn't even think that she would hear his voice again, save for the time when Miroku told her Sango wanted to talk to her on the phone, and Sango tricked Inuyasha the same way.

Neither of them had talked to their partners for a week.

__

He loved Kikyo. What reason would he have had to tell me? I've had boyfriends, but he doesn't know about them . . . I was just jealous, and I took it out on him because, once again, Kikyo got the best first.

Kagome came out of her thoughts, "I got one. Worst assignment."

There was a pause, and although Kagome could pretty much guess which one he'd chose--this one--she still wanted to know. He might list a few before narrowing it down and she could learn something about him.   
  
For example, she already knew, that despite what most probably thought about him, that he enjoyed doing things like 20 Questions. Personally Kagome thought it was cute, the way he'd awkwardly brought up the game and found it was one of her favorites. She felt closer to him now that before and that was one of the things she secretly longed for.

Inuyasha seemed to be thinking, sifting through the multiple cases he'd had since he could drive. "I'd have to say . . .the time when Sango and I were stripped down to our underwear and shackled in a dungeon for about three weeks," he answered coolly.

Kagome gave him a blank stare that made him to a double take.

"What? It was cold in there!" He insisted indignantly, annoyed that she had burst out laughing. "You always laugh when I tell you things like this. The time Sango and I dived into a garbage truck . . .the time when I had to pretend I was a gynecologist--"

"What?!" Kagome gasped, erupting in another deadly wave of laughter. "You never told me" --she gasped--"that!"

"Hey, leave me alone." Inuyasha sported an adorable pout, although Kagome had a feeling he didn't mean it to be. "Do you know how terrified I was when they actually _gave_ me a patient? The agency was supposed to take care of that until the crime lord and his wife came in."

Kagome had stopped laughing, but barely, and a dopey smile stayed on her face as evidence of her efforts. "I'm sorry . . ."

"You're the one that asked."

"Compared to the gynecologist one I would think the one being stripped down to underwear wouldn't be a big deal." Kagome pushed the sight of him in just boxers out of her mind, cursing Miroku for his bad influence.

========================================================

"Now tell me what you know!" Sango growled, "Or Miroku _will _drop you."

"I don't know nothin'!" The man swore under his breath as Miroku loosened his grip on his shirt. "Alright, alright, I'll tell ya!"

Miroku sneezed.

"Someone must be talkin' about yas."

"Shut up and tell us what you know!" Miroku commanded, shaking the man over the side carelessly. "You're getting heavy."

"Ok! Ok! Boss got called an' got an offer from someone. Dunno the name, but boss didn't take it. Said something about the risks being suicide. He always traces his calls, came out to be somewhere nearby. Like near some coffee shop or somethin'. The boss told us he'd asked us to get the Shikon Jewel for him. 'Minded us of that dead guy, Naraku. 'e used to have some people come get trades from us. He called again, traced 'em to the ocean."

"Why did he want the Shikon Jewel?" Sango asked, grimacing when Miroku tossed the man back on top of the roof.

"I don't know! Boss didn't tell us everything. He jus' picked up a gun an' shot a hole in the wall, a few sparks flew out. Said there was a bug."

Miroku let the man go, watching as he threw open the door and ran down the staircase. "That's all we're getting tonight. Everyone that knows anything has been asked the same thing and declined. If we have a fake one, does that mean that he doesn't have the real one?"

"You would think it would already be in his possession."

"He said that it would be by some coffee shop. Let's go see how many are still open." Sango nodded. "You know . . .Sango. You look really sexy when you yell at people--Ow! What was that for?"

"Is that all you ever think about?"

========================================================

"No, I didn't have to do anything. They sent in a real one."

"I would have thought this one would be the worst one you'd ever had."

"Why? This is one of the best."

"But Naraku--"

"Is a hula skirt sissy, as Kagura once said. It's exciting. And the case itself isn't the only reason I like it, either." Inuyasha glanced over to see her reaction, unknowingly making her heart beat overtime.

Inuyasha's car came to a stop in front of a dimly lit pool hall. "I should have just walked, Fang can't put up with late night traffic this bad."

He looked for a spot on the side of the road to find none. Typical. They'd lucked out with just the back road bars up until now. Just when all his hope was about to leave him someone was tossed out onto the pavement. With a yell about injustice the young man straightened his jacket collar and jammed his key into the lock.

The man ripped down the street, almost running into a poor pedestrian and a lamp post.

Kagome smirked at the sound of sirens.

"Come in five minutes after me." Inuyasha ordered. "If they think I'm a cop then we still have a chance."

"I can get the guys to talk." Kagome stuck up her chin, getting out before he could close the door. "You come in five minutes after me."

"Kagome--"

"Look, I'm a woman."

"Oh really?"   
  
"Which means that I can…_seduce_ them and get them to get all starry eyed and loose-lipped." Inuyasha looked slightly bothered by this, and he looked like he was about to object. But, being a girl, and being one who almost had a bachelor's degree in Inuyashology she knew how to soothe him.

Boost his ego.

"If I get in a jam I know that you will come to my aid." Kagome beamed at him with trust. "I think I can count on you. You've done it enough times already for me to know." Silently Kagome walked into the bar, a catcall coming from her right.

Inuyasha found himself growling as he leaned onto the passenger side door with a frown on his face. A woman gave him an appreciating smile, but distanced herself at the sound. It would only be a fling, so what good did it do anyone to play along?

He needed to wait for Kagome to come out, or for the sound of something slamming into a pool table to reach his ears.

__

"Hey baby, want a drink?"

"No thanks."

"Ooh, I like 'em hard to get."

"I like mine educated. But call me when you finally graduate seventh grade."

Ooh, I like 'em fiery…"

Inuyasha smirked at the girl's smart attitude. He had to admit, Kagome _was_ fiery. He listened a while longer, hearing the same thing they'd been hearing all night coming from someone with an accent.   
  
They might as well be talking to parrots for more variation.

And the night was still young.

========================================================

"So . . ." A man around the age of twenty nine strode up to the pair at the bar, sliding into a red barstool next to the girl. "I lost my number . . ."

"Really?" She rose her eyebrow, resting her head on her knuckles and batting her eyelashes flirtatiously.

"Yeah. So I was wondering . . .can I have yours?" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively, making her stomach turn over on its side.

The man next to her kept his eyes on the glass in front of him, waiting for her answer. He would not growl. He would not growl… He believed, deep down, that if he kept saying this it wouldn't happen…

Hey, it'd happened when Sango'd repeated 'I'll find ten dollars' over and over last Thursday..

"Sure." She pulled out a sleek pen, grabbed his hand, and scribbled down a number. "Call me." She ended it with a wink.

"You can bet on that, sexy." He slipped off the stool and headed to the back of the bar, selling her number for twenty bucks to the man next to him. The oily, fat, big-nosed drunk man next to him.

Kagome only smirked, turning back to an irritated looking hanyou. "No fair, you drank my soda!"

"Why don't you go ask the guy over there if he can buy you one?" Inuyasha rebuked, downing the rest of his own drink.

"He probably already realized I gave him an eight hundred number . . ." Kagome muttered flippantly, confusing the other agent. "So I don't think he'll like treating me to anything."

"Eight hundred number?"   
  
"To Best Western." Kagome shrugged, "Selling numbers to others should not be rewarded in any way. Except maybe hotel prices."

==========================================================

Sango breathed in deeply, taking in the scent of her car with an at home kind of feeling. There was that smell of old paper, from the six year old magazines lying haphazardly over the back seat, but she could live with that.

They had already taken care of their last stop and were just sitting there in silence, Sango scribbling down every café name she knew.

Miroku had decided to voice both their thoughts and call the two people that they were the most worried for and afraid of.

The cell only rang once before someone answered. "Inuyasha."

"Hey, Inuya--"   
  
Sango jumped from her spot at the easily understandable obscenities passing through into the cell phone's receiver. Miroku held the phone out about a foot away from his head, eyes squinted together in silent agony. He could vaguely hear Kagome's soothing voice on the other side, trying to calm the hanyou down. Thank the gods for his best friend.

__

"Breathe, Inuyasha… You might rip the seat that way…"

"Kagome?"

__

"I think the damned hentai wishes to speak with you." 

__

"Miroku?"

"Kagome, Sango wants to say hi." His girlfriend shot him a shocked and icy look before grabbing the phone away from him.

"Hello? Kagome-cha--"

The yelling started again.

"Um…Kagome-chan…Let me explai--"

More obscenities and a brief 'Keh' from Inuyasha. It was obvious that he could hear every word.

__

"Let me talk to her! No! Kagome--Damn you wench…Ow! What did my fake ears do to deserve that?"

"Shhh! It's my turn to be angry!"

"Kagome! Let me explain--!"

__

"Not on this phone, you won't!"--the girl lowered her voice down a few notches, although she still had a feeling it wouldn't help anything--_"Inuyasha will hear you!"_

__

"Hear what? What are you two talking about--"

"Nothing!"

"It's never nothing when someone says it's nothing. That only means that nothing is something that they don't want the person they're talking about to know about so they call it nothing!"

"…Just let me talk to Sango."

"Keh. You're trying to talk about me behind my back! I knew I shouldn't turn my back on you--"

"Oh shut up… You've been listening this entire time, have you heard anything about you?"   
  
"…feh."

There was a pregnant silence as both sides waited for the other to speak. Finally Sango sighed, rolling her eyes up to the roof of her Mazda, "I accept your thank you in advance, Kagome-chan. Relay the message to Dog-boy. Ciao."

==========================================================

__

"…og-boy. Ciao."

"Sango--wait!" Kagome was met with a dead silence, showing the girl was already gone. "That girl…"

"What does she mean by 'thank you'?" Inuyasha scoffed, trying to hide his understanding. Seriously, it couldn't be for what he thought, right? Their friends were oblivious to everything about his feelings, at least in that department…

Kagome blushed, shrugging away her understanding as well.

Both were in denial, which only gave them that much more in common.

==========================================================

"What's the news?" Ayame rushed into the room, looked slightly flushed. She was dressed in one of her usual business suits, having abandoned her heels to get there faster. "Shippou said you were back--Where's Inuyasha and Kagome?"   
  
"Right now they're probably coming back to rip us apart." Sango muttered, looking guiltily at Miroku.

"Good…that's good…" Both agents gave her a dry look before saying an 'oh thanks' in unison and collapsing onto one another on the couch situated in the middle of the room. "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm just tired."

She sure looked it.

For the first time since they came both Miroku and Sango noticed Ayame's appearance. Her suit was a bit wrinkled, her hair disheveled, and her brilliant green eyes void of most of their usual spark.

"Are you ok, Ayame? You look like hell swallowed you and then spit you back up," Sango asked bluntly. Miroku was a bit hesitant, but he nodded in agreement.

"It's ok, I'm fine." Ayame said, although her words belied her aura immensely. "What news do you bring?" She asked, sitting down as straight as she could across from them.

"Everyone we talked to said they had received a call from someone reminding them of Naraku asking them for a favor having to do with the Shikon Jewel. When tracked, it was always traced underwater."

Miroku watched Ayame's expression carefully, noticing a perplexed look find a place on her features. "The most important is, whoever this person is, he doesn't have the jewel."

"If he doesn't have it… Then why was Kagome given a fake? Who would it be with?"

"Obviously this 'SJH' person wasn't the one who got it when Naraku croaked. He was supposed to, apparently. Based on what you found in the chopper…it would seem he really wants it and it fell into the wrong hands."

"What if Naraku was only leading us on some false hunt for something that doesn't even exist anymore?"

"The jewel isn't easily destroyed. Little is known about it with the common people but it's as strong, if not stronger, than diamonds. It has to be out there." Ayame put a hand over her forehead, hiding her eyes from view. "Naraku, that bastard… Everything is so cryptic with him!"

Miroku noticed how on edge the girl was. He'd known he a while, ever sense he asked her if she would bear his child at the tender age of thirteen. Well, maybe not so tender, but he knew when she was pushed to her limits.

This was one of those times.

"Ayame, maybe you should take a rest. You're taking this harder than the rest of us…"

"It's not just this project. And I'm the head of this division. I'm not going to hand this over to anyone just because I'm…" she trailed off, deciding it was better not to say. "The Shikon Jewel will be located, and when it is we'll all be able to go back to our daily lives without and worries about who is going to decide to hold the entire world for ransom. It will be here, and the world will be safe again without knowing they were ever in danger."   
  
"And if the Shikon Jewel was destroyed?"   
  
"Then there is one less thing good has to protect from evil."

==========================================================

His groan echoed throughout the dim hallway and faded almost instantly. This place was so small… the size would have made claustrophobics go crazy by now. The room was about the size of a bathroom, and smelled like one too.

There it was again. That incessant dripping that never stopped… The man struggled against his restraints for the third time that day. Morning, evening, he couldn't tell. No light came through except the small lamp in the corner, half covered by a discarded newspaper.

What day was it, anyway?

The prisoner dragged his feet towards the end of his cell, getting an idea. He had lost most of his sense of time by now, so accustomed to never being told anything but insults and murmurs, along with the occasional conversations coming from above. But, he did know that it had been five days ago when that newspaper had been left on the lampshade…

With careful examination he could make out a six and what could be either seventeen or nineteen. Therefore, it must have been the twenty-first or third of June.

Was that how long it had been?

The was a moan from another part of the vicinity, not gruff like his own, but more of a feminine cry. He knew it was her, coming from upstairs. There was a sound similar to that of skin hitting skin and then another cry.

"Damn woman…Get her out of my face, send her down with Naraku. The two fancied each other for a while, maybe they'll stir up some old flames, eh?"

Him…the damnable bastard that had brought him here. He couldn't just let him die, could he? He couldn't just take over the business like he had been asked to. This…_boy_ had to hold him prisoner!

Not like he wanted to die at all. But considering the damnable options the first was better. If he ever got free he would kill that disloyal assassin Yura, the bastard hanyou, and everyone else that had wronged him.

Including Kagura.

Oh yes, she would be first.

Suddenly the door opened, for the first time in three days, and allowed a painful glow to enter the basement he was in. A silhouetted figure stood at the top of the steps, hiding his face from view. His long hair was pushed from his face by a headband and something limp in his arms attracted Naraku's attention.

Kikyo…

==========================================================

Inuyasha burst into the room, having used his sense of smell to detect where they were instead of just asking someone. Kagome peeped out from behind him, not finding any other way to see inside. She nudged Inuyasha out of the way when he still didn't move, annoyed with him forgetting she was there so quickly.

"Kagome, don't--!"   
  
"Oh…" Kagome's stormy orbs widened more so than she thought they could. "Um…excuse us…" With catlike reflexes the agent had grabbed Inuyasha's collar, all but throwing him from the room, before slamming the door. The moment it was closed she blanched, "…what was that?"

Inuyasha gave her a deadpan looked, amazed she didn't know. "Well, Kagome…when a man and a woman love each other very much…"

"Oh shut up, Inuyasha!" Kagome blushed, ignoring the laughter now coming in waves from the hanyou. "I know _what_ they were doing! It's just…arrgh! Just shut up."

Inuyasha put on his most innocent look before turning back around. "Come on, obviously they left that room already…"

"_Obviously._"

The two scurried through the halls, Kagome using all her strength to keep from laughing at the adorable look on Inuyasha's face. He _so_ reminded her of a puppy! His ears swiveled to the side, catching something similar to a slap to his left. "I think I found them…"

"This from the guy who thought a couple having an intimate moment was them fifteen minutes ago…"

"Hey! It was two minutes ago!" Inuyasha turned back around, fighting the blush on his cheeks. Yes, he admitted it. He had barged into a room not even paying attention to the fact he had been zoning in on Miroku and Sango's scents. _Not_ anyone else.

Damn his temporarily one track mind!

Inuyasha was about to barge into the room, but decided it was better to knock first.

"Yeah, come in, Inuyasha." Ayame's voice flowed out like an off tune melody. He could tell she was troubled.

When he threw open the door and sent the two agents sitting there a glare. They seemed a bit uneasy with the look. _Keh, like they shouldn't be…_

"Hello…Sango." Inuyasha smiled devilishly, crossing his arms over his torso. Kagome entered a moment later, her eyes looking at Miroku in basically the same manner.

"It was all Sango." Miroku pointed to his girlfriend, knowing he would pay for it later. Sango gave him a surprised look, but only shrugged.

"Yes, it was." She looked oddly proud of herself, "Don't worry. I know about both of your ungodly hard heads so you can each thank me in private whenever you feel it necessary."

Even the cricket that had been driving Ayame crazy had gone quiet.

"I'm not even going to ask…" the wolf demon muttered, continuing to draw something on her notepad. "Just tell me what you learned."

==========================================================

"You guys, I'm really worried about Ayame-chan…" Kagome took another sip of her milkshake, looking around the booth. "She looked worn out, like she got dumped or something."

"Or cheated on." Inuyasha muttered darkly, picking up another fry and sticking it in his mouth.

"How can you say that?!" Kagome shrieked, blushing until the intense stares of other customers. She laughed nervously, lowering her voice down a notch. "Kouga-kun would never do that to her, he loves her!"

"Keh."

"Yes, 'keh'." Kagome mocked, flicking the tip of the fry she'd just eaten at him.

Her aim, although all but perfect, still managed to miss the hanyou. Instantly a childish disappointment appeared on Inuyasha's face. "Hey! That landed in my McFlurry, wench!"

Kagome only rolled her eyes, oblivious to the amused looks of two of her friends.

"Oh my god!" Everyone whipped around to look at Inuyasha, a shocked look on his face. "It's Hello Kitty!"

It obviously didn't take much to dupe this girl…

"Oh my god! Where?!" Kagome's head spun around at an unnatural speed, looking out the window at all the bustling people outside.

Inuyasha quickly switched his dessert with hers. Sango rose an eyebrow and Miroku snickered as Kagome turned around bemused. "Hey…Hello Kitty isn't--"

"I always liked Badtz-Maru more though…" Inuyasha interrupted, taking a big spoonful of his McFlurry.

Sango couldn't help but smirk. She had struggled against adding her comment until she heard Miroku's.   
  
"I don't know…I liked Pekkle."

"I thought the Little Twin Stars were the best."

The Sanrio conversation of the century ensued.


	6. A Voice Through the Rain

****

Mission Completed - Chapter 6

__

Disclaimer: How much does Inuyasha cost? It's ok, I don't want the series…just him. Would… ::counts her savings:: forty bucks work? ::puppy dog eyes::

__

Sakura's Note: I'm going into Freshman year and have to prepare. I.e. the summer reading that I've been putting off, clothes, and my dying social life. We've been scattered all over the place for summer vacation and my friends and I are just now seeing each other again. So, updates will be coming a bit less frequently until I get settled in high school. Sorry, I really hate letting you guys down like this. I'm going on a temporary hiatus. I'll be writing during that time so that when I do come back I can update at least once a week per story.

On a lighter note, thank you to everyone who reviewed! I love to write these stories for myself, and more importantly: you, and the reviews always make me start giggling and beaming with pride.

Shout outs:

__

Chandra16: You probably aren't the only one confused about the last part. Basically what happened is during our favorite couple's latest escapade Kagome tossed a piece of French fry into Inuyasha's McFlurry. Loving his McFlurries, (like I do) he decided to just play the classic switcher on Kagome. To distract her he yelled out Hello Kitty, and while she was trying to find the adorable Sanrio character he switched his ice cream with hers.

Ending scene: Explained. Thanks for your review!

__

Dragon Man 180: Thanks for your review! I always love hearing from you. I was a bit worried about making Naraku seem a bit OOC in the captured scene. I'm glad you didn't have any problems with it. Also, our favorite stoic dog demon will be making an appearance soon, as well as my favorite 'wind witch'.

__

Thanks to: firehottie, Dragon Man 180, sapphire pink, trixie-trix, TaintedInuShemeeko, KrAzYsKiTtLe92, mish-serenity, eX Driver Liz, and chandra16.

__

Chapter 6: A Voice Through the Rain

Inuyasha grumbled, giving the girl next to him a withering glare. He wasn't surprised to see her continue to ignore him. With a sigh, he put his attention back on the road.

Why was it that Kagome was starting to feel like more of a partner than Sango? This was the second time that they had been paired up since their friends' relationship started. Even when they weren't pushed together automatically they were still set up.

And now, Inuyasha was driving back to the base with Kagome while Sango and Miroku rode back in Sango's car.

Why couldn't they have all just shared a ride?

"Why couldn't we all just have shared a ride?" Kagome muttered, staring out the window at the wet streets. It was raining again, and the world beyond Fang was blurry and dreary, only darkening her mood. "If we had all shared a car there would be less air pollution."

"She speaks."

Kagome glared, crossing her arms over her chest. "Really? Or have I been talking away and you were just temporarily deaf?"

"Or maybe you're just pouting like a little girl because I stole your McFlurry." "Why did you have to say Hello Kitty?" Kagome asked, "That was just mean."

Silence filled the car and Kagome filled with victory. She was thinking whether or not she should spare a chance to turn on the radio when Inuyasha spoke.

"I agree."

Kagome cocked her head, looking up from the tuning dial, "You mean you're admitting you're a jackass?"

"No! Sharing a ride! What else?" Inuyasha scoffed, "Sometimes, woman, I worry about you."

"Wow…_the_ Inuyasha, defender of the innocent, butt-kicker of evil, cares for little ol' me?" Kagome feigned a swoon and batted her eyelashes at him, "I'm humbled by your concern."

He didn't know exactly what to say to that, but couldn't stop the tiny smile from coming to his face. Instantly the hanyou berated himself for breaking under her sarcastic comment. This girl would do him in in the end.

Kagome reached for the radio, planning to check out the latest American hits.

That's when everything slowed down.

"Kagome no!" Inuyasha's hand came towards hers in an attempt to knock it away just as her hand reached the volume dial. The hanyou had realized they were going to hit a pothole seconds before and didn't have time to stop her. He hadn't even known she'd dare touch the radio in the first place anyway.

Just as she began to turn up the volume the car hit the pothole, causing her hand to jerk, which made the volume fly up to it's maximum.

And that was where Kagome's idea about Inuyasha being deaf really kicked in.

"I wonder where those two hard heads are?" Miroku looked up from Sango's computer, noticing his girlfriend was back from the garage--again.

"Stop worrying, they're probably in Fang somewhere-- on the side of the road coming to terms with their feelings. I'm sure if we were to go look for them a steamed up Fang will be bobbing up and--"

"I'm not listening! La la la la la la!" Sango covered her ears.

"Come on--"

"LA LA LA LA LA!" Sango continued, hitting him on the head with her elbow. "No perverted remarks about Inuyasha-kun and Kagome-chan." With the finality in her voice, Miroku would have been an idiot not to listen.

"You spoiled all my fun!" Miroku huffed, his eyes moving back to the screen as words buzzed by faster than even a demon could read. Pictures were moving just as fast, showing Miroku more men's pictures than he would ever want to see in his lifetime. Not to mention barely any female faces appeared in the fingerprint analysis screen.

"How far complete is the search?" The agent's amusement was evident in her voice but she kept the laughter contained.

"Ninety-eight per--"

"GOMEN NASAI!" Kagome rushed past Sango's room, probably not even aware that it was occupied, and continued down the hall. "Gomen! Gomen! I'm so sorry!"

"Stop yelling already…"

Sango and Miroku looked from one to the other, more terrified by the fact that Inuyasha was whining than the fact that Kagome was screaming. Between the two actions, it was only the first one that didn't happen often.

"What do you think…?" Sango wheeled her chair over to the door to see Inuyasha's door slam.

"Lover's spat. They'll get over it soon. If we interfere it'll only worsen things." Miroku waved a hand. "Oh look! A match! Or…a few…" Sango sighed. Well, if they worked it out, it'd be better for everyone. Might as well leave them alone.

"Inuyasha…I'm so, so, extremely sorry…" Kagome continued, lowering her voice to a whine. This didn't help his case, though.

The hanyou jerked open the door to his room and entered, ignoring the girl following quickly after him.

Kagome was worried. His eardrums were probably bust open now. Could a hanyou heal from that? _Oh gods…what if Inuyasha is deaf for the rest of his life?_

"Lie down." Inuyasha was oblivious to what she was saying. Although he hated her yelling, it was the only time he could hear her. When he did as he was told the girl got even more worried. Inuyasha…_listening _to her? She had hurt him more than she thought. "Inuyasha…are you ok?" The ringing in his ears was still far louder than the girl's voice, but he could read her lips better than he thought he could. "No, wench, I'm not. These damn bells aren't going anywhere."

"You can hear me?" At Inuyasha's questioning look she restated her question, saying it slower. "Are you reading my lips?"

"Well I can't hear you, that's for sure."

"I didn't know that would happen. But this isn't permanent, right? I mean… you can heal…" She realized he wasn't looking at her, Kagome's words falling on deaf ears. She rolled her eyes, cursing the immense guilt weighing down her stomach. "Inuyasha." She poked him, getting an annoyed look.

"You're still here?" "Yes, why wouldn't I be? You're sitting here with imaginary bells in your head."

Kagome blew a stray strand of midnight hair out of her face. It was replaced by a larger piece seconds later, so she just drummed her fingernails on his arm – much to his annoyance.

"Will you stop that?" Inuyasha growled.

She didn't even have to look up at him for the hanyou to know her answer.

If he wanted her to stop all he had to do was move his arm. Kagome wasn't going to stop until that time came. The agent looked up and met his angry honey eyes. "You know, you're being really mean to me…"

"Well, you deafened me." he replied haughtily.

"And I'm still not totally convinced." Kagome muttered under her breath.

"What was that?"

"I said that we should get some medical attention in here for your ears to see if the damage permanent or not."

There was a moment of silence while he pieced together her sentence. "That took a lot longer to say the second time…"

"Well it's what I said."

Inuyasha gave her a skeptical glance but then just sighed in defeat and looked back at the ceiling. And Kagome refused to leave. She just sat there… tapping his arm. He began to feel something, and then he realized his ears were twitching.

Kagome would have thought the ear twitching cute had it not been for the circumstances. _What if he's stuck like this forever? _The tears began to pour without her permission.

"Kagome?"

"I'm sorry…" She whispered, looking up to meet his eyes.

__

They're so… blue…Gods…now's not the time! "Keh. Come on… stop crying." She knew he hated when she cried… so why was she always doing it?

The fiery spark was back in her eyes, "You're being a jerk, Inuyasha! I said I was sorry and the guilt's killing me. I didn't mean to do what I did, but I'm not going to sit and grovel for forgiveness!" "Then stop being so whiny and just get that I'm not mad! I'm annoyed!" Inuyasha glared down at her, but the feeling that he was about to get it was gnawing in his gut.

"It's not my fault you're so incompetent that I worry about you all the time! I was scared sick about you those three months… wondering what mess you got yourself into! So don't tell me to whine, because I'm – not – whining!"

She didn't notice what she'd said, he was sure of that, but it didn't make the feeling in his stomach go away. It vaguely reminded him of butterflies… Kagome had worried about him?

He would have said something uncharacteristically sweet had it not been for something else that caught his attention. "Hey! I'm not incompetent!"

The younger agent tried her hardest to return his glare, but a small smile still showed on her face. He was always so indignant about everything… "You're slow on the uptake then."

Kagome had to give the guy credit… that glare wasn't budging off his face.

"I'm not slow."

She gave a subtle smile, "I know."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. _I'll never understand this girl…_ His ear twitched. He closed his eyes to try and ignore it.

Why had he made it so the radio could be that loud again?

"No, Miroku!"

"Please?"

"Miroku…"

"Sango, please? Pretty please? I'll be quiet!"

"No!" Sango hissed, pushing him against the wall. "Me first."

"But– "

The agent gave him a glare that dared for him to protest. When he relented she smiled and kissed him on the cheek before easing back to the door. "Alrighty then." She put the glass to the door and put her ear to the glass. "I can't hear anything…" 

"You're probably not doing it right. Come on, let me try." He held out his hand expectantly, waiting for her to hand over their listening device. "Please?" 

"Miroku, if you want to eavesdrop on Inuyasha and Kagome so bad get your own glass!"

"But yours is better!" He insisted, putting his ear to the door.

Sango sighed, "Oh, fine… the things I do for you…"

"You know you love it." "Just see what they're saying." 

"Technically, sweetheart, I can't _see_ what they're saying…" Sango gave her boyfriend a dead pan look.

"Miroku… baby…"

"Yes, snookums?"

"Give me the glass."

Kagome sniffed, then snuggled her head deeper into the mattress. It was so warm… so soft… Maybe she could take this mattress back home with her? She cracked her eyes open, noticing the change in scenery. This wasn't Sango's room – not unless she was into action movies and race cars.

Well it could be Sango's room…

Nope, this was definitely **_not_** Sango's bedroom. Kagome blinked, the clouds of sleep still blurring her vision. She could make out two white things moving a little above her, but everything else seemed silent. There was a murmur from outside, also, but she didn't even give that a second thought.

That's when she noticed there was a gust of warm wind blowing on her face every few seconds.

She muttered something incoherently and raised her head off the bed to come face to face with the most peaceful face she'd ever seen before in her life. Save for his twitching ears, Inuyasha looked like he was in heaven.

The young agent moved her leg, which had fallen asleep from being on the hard floor so long, and curled and uncurled her fingers. With a light yawn she looked back at the half demon. He was breathing steadily, eyelids covering his stunning golden eyes, and his mouth slightly open. _He looks like a child… peaceful and content._

She reached up tentatively and rubbed one of the twitching, fuzzy triangles. He gave a sigh in his sleep, then turned a bit, so his face was halfway hidden by his pillow. Kagome let out a breath she'd been holding and resumed massaging his ears.

__

Inuyasha… you'd bite my hand off if you knew what I was doing right now. Kagome gave a sad smile, "I think that hurts the most."

No Matches Found.

The same three words flashed across the screen for the umpteenth time. _This SJH has covered their tracks well… not even a single mention. _Sesshoumaru let out a low growl in the back of his throat. He hadn't heard from his brother since the other day… either Inuyasha truly was incompetent or he was a fool and thought he didn't need to keep the ex-assassins informed.

Sesshoumaru could believe both perfectly.

The door to his office creaked open. "Have you received any more calls from your brother?"

Sesshoumaru looked up from his desk. "No."

Yura worried her bottom lip, "You don't think they're in trouble, do you?"

"No."

"Is that all you're going to say?" The hair demoness huffed, stomping over to his desk.

With slight amusement in his golden eyes he resumed typing away at his laptop, "Yes."

"You, Sesshoumaru, are more like your brother than you'll ever know." That got the desired effect when the tapping of the keys abruptly stopped. Yura left the room in a huff, planning to call Inuyasha the moment she found the nearest phone.

Sesshoumaru was stunned.

And that's how his wife saw him when she came in half an hour later. "Sessho, Jaken caught the kitchen on fire again… Sessho?" The dog demon didn't look up from the desk. "Kagura…"

"What's wrong?" "Who do I remind you of… if anyone?"

Kagura frowned, walking over and seating herself on the corner of his desk. "What do you mean?"

"Do I remind you of my brother?"

Kagura cocked her head to the side, a worried look on her face. "Did you eat Jaken's pasta salad again?"

"Am I anything like my bastard of a brother?" He reiterated.

"…no…" Kagura answered diffidently. At her husband's glare she flicked her wrist to open her fan.

"Kagura…"

"I think I hear Kanna calling me." His wife jumped up and exited just as swiftly as she had entered.

Sesshoumaru glared in her direction as she hurried down the hall. "Damn woman…" He looked back at his computer screen, trying to dig up anything and everything he could about the new threat. He really was going soft…

Wait a minute…

"Jaken did _what_?!"

Kagome had dozed back off a while ago, but luckily she'd fallen asleep rubbing his ears. He'd been wondering if he should 'pretend' to wake up, but then she would have stopped what she was doing… so he just kept his eyes closed.

"I think that hurts the most." 

"What were you talking about, Kagome?"

Yeah, he'd heard her. He'd have been in real trouble if he hadn't started to feel better with those healing hands.

" 'nu… sha…" Kagome sighed in her sleep. The eighteen year old stirred, mumbling an inaudible word and then opened her eyes. "Oh gods…"

Sango chose that moment to barge into the room. "We've gotten a break… through." Well they hadn't been expecting this… When they'd stopped hearing them they just thought the glass was broke.

Kagome jumped away from the bed, still thinking Inuyasha was asleep, and clamped a hand over each of her friends' mouths. "Shh, Inuyasha's sleeping. Don't let him know, don't let him know…"

The couple looked at one another, then at Kagome, before she could feel their smiles underneath her hands. Then a muffled 'aww' from Sango.

Miroku gave her a questioning look, " e unt o ez aeep?"

"What?" Kagome released both of them, knowing sooner or later she'd regret it.

"He doesn't know he's asleep?" Miroku repeated drolly.

"Don't you dare give me that Miroku Ayushima!"

"Well here we are, killing ourselves to find out who this SJH is… and you two are in here living out your soap opera drama behind closed doors."

Inuyasha inwardly groaned – they were never going to let this go now…

"Sango!" Kagome gasped, "You make it sound like we were in here having a make out session or something!"

"Which we certainly were NOT." Inuyasha grumbled, sitting up from the bed alert. Too hell with his asleep act.

Kagome's cheeks heated to dangerous levels, "Inuyasha, you're-"

"What's with the glass?" The hanyou interrupted, pointing to the cup in Miroku's hand.

Miroku and Sango wore guilty expressions. "Nothing."

Kagome looked at them oddly, the shrugged it off. To each their own. "What breakthrough?"

Miroku responded with an intelligent 'huh?'.

"This breakthrough you woke us for!" Kagome repeated. _Oh gods, I just realized how that sounds…_

Luckily no one else seemed to notice.

"You need to see it to believe it." Sango grabbed Kagome by the wrist. "You too, Inuyasha." The half demon scoffed.

"No… really? I can come too?" Inuyasha asked with fake enthusiasm. To tell the truth, Inuyasha and huge ecstatic grins were a bit freaky. "Guys? Don't you dare just walk away!" He stomped off to follow them, temporarily forgetting everything that had occurred back in his room.

Sango collapsed back into her computer chair and brought up a screen. "There was the fingerprint we found on the fake Shikon Jewel… we scanned it into the agency's database and there are five possible matches."

Miroku nodded, his mouth a thin line. "You won't believe it."

"You're right… I don't." Kagome's mouth was parted in shock, her eyes rereading the names on the screen.

"What are you talking about?" Inuyasha scoffed, "What's so…" He trailed off, trying to regain his composure. "Naraku… Kagura… Kanna… these are all Naraku's kin!"

"We know."

"You mean… one of them did it?"

Sango bowed her head and shook her head. "They couldn't have."

"Like hell they couldn't!" Inuyasha roared, storming from the room. "They've fooled me once, they can do it again just as easily!"

"Inuyasha!" Kagome yelled. _Don't do anything stupid… I know you…_

Miroku and Sango traded worried looks before looking back at the screen. "It's possible that none of them did it."

Kagome looked back at them, "What do you mean?"

"Take a closer look, Kag."

The agent complied, realization dawning on her.

His brother was going to die. Sesshoumaru had to be involved! Kagura was his wife, and the others were her family. If one of them did it, then they were all in on it.

They wanted to know all the information because they had to keep tabs on him. They would always carry the mentality of an assassin, even though he thought they could change.

"You should have known you couldn't hide your tracks for long…"

"Inuyasha!" Kagome scanned the parking lot. Fang was nowhere to be seen.

Thunder rumbled, lightening flashed, and rain began to pour. The world became a whole lot less promising, and Kagome became a whole lot more worried.

"Kagome, what are you doing?" Sango grabbed her forearm.

"I'm going after him, what does it look like?" She didn't allow her eyes to stray from the empty parking space that she knew had held his car. "You don't even know where he's going!" Sango argued. "He has his cell with him, call him! Explain it that way. Don't go running out in a storm to try and stop him!"

"He'll just hang up or not even answer at all, Sango. He's too angry, you'd be too if you thought your brother had betrayed you." Kagome shut her mouth immediately, open mouth – insert foot. "Sango, I'm sorry – I didn't mean-"

Sango shook her head to show there were no hard feelings and sighed, "Kagome, at least take my car…"

"I'm too nervous to drive in the rain… if I do you'll find me lying in a ditch somewhere."

"Then let me drive you! Miroku and I will come with you – Kagome!" Sango chased her to the end of the garage, where she lost sight of her in the downpour. "What the hell is wrong with that girl?"

"Let her go." Miroku put a hand on her shoulder, making her jump.

"But Miroku it's pouring outside and she's on foot! What kind of crazy notion is she going through to think she can catch up with him?" Sango huffed, sinking into her boyfriend's chest in defeat. "She's in love just like we thought… I've heard about love making us do crazy things but…"

"It's crazy, and unwise… but have we ever known Kagome to think about things before she does them when she's worried?"

"I think you're confusing Kagome with Inuyasha…"

"No. Inuyasha does things without thinking no matter how he feels."

"Damn it!" Inuyasha pounded his fist on the steering wheel, ignoring the way the horn blared out in protest.

He was cursed.

Fang, for the first time in his life, had broken down. The rain was pounding on the windshield, making the curses streaming from his mouth impossible to hear from outside. Fang could do many things: become invisible, had fireproof interiors, store tanks of oxygen incase of water submersion… but it couldn't drive out of a mud pit.

Instead it's battery died, leaving Inuyasha stranded on a road about a mile and a half away from the base and an hour by foot from Sesshoumaru.

Inuyasha threw open the door and slid out, immediately becoming ankle deep in putrid smelling mud. He muttered another colorful phrase before heading for the hood. "It needs a jump start… please say that'll be it…" No one was out this late, not on a road like this. Just his luck.

But there was one word keeping him from going totally insane.

__

Kagome…

__

Inuyasha…

Kagome jumped over a puddle. _He's going to go and do something stupid… and if I know him at all it will be to his brother's house…_ Kagome sped up.

She'd been running for almost twenty minutes when she saw it up ahead. She didn't believe it, but who else had long white hair and a silver sports car this late?

"Inuyasha!"

He didn't look up.

__

He's not still deaf… don't tell me he has the nerve to ignore me…

"INUYASHA!"

The half demon paused in his efforts to push the car up out of the ditch for the second time. He could have sworn he'd heard Kagome. Then again he'd also been hearing her name in his head for fifteen minutes… maybe he was finally going insane like Sango had been saying since they were kids?

Things just weren't looking up for him today…

Lightening lit up the sky with a crack of thunder at its heel and the raindrops hit like bullets. That's when Inuyasha felt someone coming. He couldn't hear very well over the constant thunder, but he could make out a vague silhouette growing steadily larger.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome wiped fiercely at the water running down her face. It was annoying and it was blurring her vision. She picked up speed, unable to see that the hanyou was looking right at her.

"Kagome?" Inuyasha slammed down the hood of his car and put a hand above his eyes to try and stop the rain. Suddenly he was slammed into the mud, a just-as-disheveled girl landing on top of him.

"I was so worried!" she gripped onto his waist tighter, making Inuyasha grunt. "I thought you'd be long gone by now… You could have died!" Her stormy orbs trailed their way down his face, staring at his lips, before seizing them.

Before he could respond, the feel of her lips on his was gone, and he was left wide eyed underneath the girl.

"Kagura and the others didn't do anything. They all share Naraku's fingerprint, except a little piece that's unique. It didn't match…" She sniffled, shocked she'd kissed him, scared for what he'd do, and terrified of how close she could have come to losing him. "None of them-"

Her lips stopped moving when she noticed the emotions in his eyes and his thumb silencing the words. Kagome was tense, even when he stole a kiss from her that kept going for what seemed like hours.

The rain poured but neither took notice.


	7. The Youth of Today

****

Mission Completed - Chapter 7

__

Disclaimer:

Sakura's Note: I know you are all very angry… and for good reason. But, I'm back and a freshman in a school of 3700! Updates will hopefully speed up soon, because now that I'm completely used to my school I'm ready for anything. I apologize, and I know how it feels to love a story and then not hear from the author forever… I've cursed silently at many an author because of the very same thing.

Anyway, thank you for waiting, even if you didn't review. Enjoy this chapter.

****

Note: Since (bless their hearts) can't seem to get the dividers right, I am always trying to find new ways to make them work. Ergo, this time they are _-.-_. My favorite equal signs and underscores no longer work.

-.-

__

Chapter 7: The Youth of Today

Raindrops larger than pennies smashed against the windowpane with a steady beat. The redhead standing there was silhouetted by the moonlight, making her look like a grounded angel. Kouga noticed this the moment he entered the dark room. Her office was dreary, and without her there to light it up, he would have thought it was a morgue.

"Ayame?"

He noticed that she jumped at his voice. That in itself was strange; she should have known he was coming long before he even touched the door handle.

"Yes, Kouga?" She turned, dark circles under her eyes and her hair disheveled.

"Gods, Ayame… you look like shit." Kouga ignored the huffy look she gave him. "Are you feeling ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She muttered, going back to look out the window.

Kouga sniffed the air, cursing the fact that the hanyou agent had a better nose when it came to feelings. "Even the humans have noticed something's up with you… Why can't you tell me?"

Ayame was shaking on the inside. What would he do if he found out? "Well… Hon, I can't tell you something that doesn't exist." She laughed self-consciously. Her eyes were burning with tears. "I'm fine."

__

Like I'm gonna believe that… He sighed, taking a step towards her. "Why are you hiding this from me? Do… do you want to break up with me?"

"I'm not…! I don't want to break up with you!" A rigid gasp went through her right before she broke down into tears and crumpled onto the floor.

Kouga was a second to late to catch her, so instead he sat down next to her, cupping her cheeks in his hands. "Ayame… what the hell is going on?" She shook her head, burying it into his chest. "Aya-"

"I went to the doctor…" she blurted.

Kouga's eyes widened. This couldn't be good.

-.-

Maybe it was because they were now coated in brown goo, or because the rain was pouring and the thunder was rolling overhead, that this was romantic. But, personally, Kagome had a feeling it was romantic because it was Inuyasha.

Finally they both remembered a little thing called oxygen and were forced to break away, and when they did reality settled back in… yet it wasn't as scary as it seemed.

"Kagome?" Inuyasha looked up at her with a mix of emotions in his eyes.

How he managed to put so much feeling into one word, her name especially, she would never know. In just one word he could express more than a poet. Kagome just gave a small smile, lifting up out of his embrace to kneel on her knees in the sod. "Sorry."

"What are you apologizing for?"

Kagome shook her head. Did he want this as much as she did? Did he even like her in that way at all? Her actions might have just caused the small bond they did have to crumble… it was her fault. "Everything."

"Keh!" Once again, the single word was filled with emotion. "I don't get it! I responded, didn't I?" He ran a clawed hand through his sopping wet hair, retracting it to find it almost totally covered in mud. This seemed so simple to him…

The raven-haired woman took in a deep breath, calming her nerves. She needed to keep a level head right now. "Do you… did you want it to happen?" She looked up, shocking him with the magnitude of the look in her azure orbs.

He studied her face carefully, trying to figure her out. Then, without warning, he smirked at the smears of mud all over her face. It was amazing how beautiful she looked even with the grime covering her head to toe. "I'll say this again. I responded, didn't I?"  
  
"But you can't say it." Kagome murmured, clasping her hands together in her lap.

"Since you've known me I haven't been good with words. Do you know what it's like to have a life like mine, having to hide your identity from everyone?" Inuyasha shot her a glare, "And I don't want your pity. Pity will do nothing for me except make me want to throttle someone…… You can't except my answer the way it is, can you?"

Kagome recognized she was crying by the heated drops running down her face, contrasting to the freezing ones from above. "I just wanted to hear you say it." She whispered, brushing the hair out of her face. The agent frowned at the mud that she wiped off as well, but that was the least of her worries. "I wanted to hear you say you wanted it as much as I did."

Inuyasha opened his mouth to object but she gave him a look that silenced any objections.

"I won't have the guts to bring this up again, Inuyasha. So this is your one chance to answer me." She took a deep breath, locking gazes with him. "Just… drop the walls you've built around yourself for a minute and stop worrying about saying what you feel making you weak. I'll never think of you that way." Her eyes pleaded what she couldn't find the words to say. _Please, Inuyasha…_

-.-

Naraku simmered, his eyes darting around in the darkness trying to locate some means of escape. "Damn that boy…" he muttered, changing his search to one of water. There was a crack that leaked water in the wall somewhere… if he could just find the moldiest part.

"Don't drink that."

Naraku's hand shot away from the damp wall like it was a hot coal. He turned his head, his eyes focusing in the dark on a figure in the corner of another part of the basement. "Keh."

"Don't _ever_ use that word." The tone she used wasn't one he was used to, and it took him a moment to realize why she was so disgusted.

"Why is it you sound like someone's mother?" Naraku shot back calmly, "Is it because you miss a certain deformity?"

"I don't miss him for tossing me out the window like a bag of trash." Kikyo stood, limping over to the cell with a stern glare. "Here." She shoved a jar full of water in between to cell bars then slid down onto the floor. "I refuse to die alone. If you die first from licking mold then that will surely happen."

"Where did you get this?"  
  
"From the leak over there. They use the jar to catch rain water that leaks in from the yard." Kikyo nodded weakly, eyeing the scars marring her legs. That glass had left her with too many to count… yet she had. All five hundred of them. Amazingly, though, her face only received one long scratch down the right side, which had almost totally faded away without a trace. "I was not locked up like you were."

The door flew open and a black haired man trotted down the steps. "What are you doing over there? Trying to pick the locks?"

"The locks are welded into a metal blob, imbecile." Was Kikyo's monotone reply. She looked him in the eye; waiting for the slap she knew was coming.

Instead she was kicked, picked up, and thrown into the corner. "Do you really want to die?"

Kikyo regained her composure, mentally crying in anguish, and readjusted her glare in the man's direction. "Whatever."

There was a plastic wrapped object thrown at her, which she caught swiftly, and then one was thrown to Naraku in his cell. "Your weekly meal… dad."

Naraku's head shot up at the mention, glaring full heartedly at the dark-haired man standing only inches out of reach. "Damn you to hell, Musou. Had I realized you'd be a complete waste of a test tube you would still be a cell running through my veins!"

"Horrid place, that was." Musou shook his head sadly, "Well, I've got to be going. Plans to dominate the earth are hard to come by these days."

"Especially with your mind doing the thinking…" Kikyo muttered as he slammed the door at the top of the stairs. _But then again, there is your other, much smarter brother…_

-.-

Kouga stared at her, looking a bit worse for wear himself. She was still in his arms, having fallen asleep a while ago from exhaustion. She said it would get more and more common for her to be tired as the days went on.

__

"What do you mean, airborne?" Kouga looked at Ayame in disbelief, not able to comprehend that his Ayame was in danger.

"They said that there was an airborne disease in the helicopter. It takes a while to show itself, but when it does there is little they can do about it. Naraku must have placed some kind of toxin in there and when it exploded…"

She sounded so weak and helpless, like a lamb that was cornered. Why? Why is this happening, Ayame?

"Kouga… you're shivering…" Ayame mumbled, "Are you alright?"

Was he alright? She was the one that was sick! "There has to be a cure!"

"They said they can find one… but it'll take time they don't think I have. Once it's past a certain stage it's too late."

"Sometimes something is meant to be." Kouga turned in surprise, seeing an old woman standing there with an unreadable look on her face. "But this… is not one of them. I have yet to meet you, but I have heard good things from young Ayame."

"No disrespect, but who are you?" Ayame stirred from the voices, but her eyes kept closed and her breathing stayed steady.

The elderly woman gave a sad smile, "My name is Kaede. I trained Inuyasha and Sango for their mission with Naraku. I see you were pulled into the case as well – you and that dear child you're holding now."

"She's going to die… all because she was too stubborn to let the others handle their own case." Kouga growled, "If anyone is to blame it's– "

"Naraku." Kaede finished, "I knew you were to say Inuyasha and the others."

"But they dragged her into this mess! She would not have been anywhere near Naraku's helicopter had they done their job right in the first place!"

"Did they ever ask Ayame for her help, or was it she that flew to Japan to help her agents? She has a good heart, and would never risk one of her own dying because she wasn't there to prevent it. No matter how much they would have told her to leave, she wouldn't have budged. They would have been undermining her authority, as well, something they respect her too much to do." Kaede shuffled over, placing a hand on the young man's shoulder.

"Naraku made them go. Naraku ruined all four of their lives. Naraku killed, stole, and made them leave a normal life behind to protect others from him. Naraku owned the helicopter. Naraku put the disease inside it. Naraku is dead now, but the scars he left behind haven't faded. If you must blame anyone, blame him. But, for now, be there for this girl. There is still hope for the cure to come through, very likely actually. Faith and time… faith and time…"

Kouga opened his mouth, but found no reason to argue with her. Kaede smiled genuinely this time, "I always loved young love…" With a chuckle, probably from age-old memories, the trained left the room.

-.-

Miroku was off getting them food, or stuffing his face and not bringing anything, she didn't know which. Since the database had not registered any other offspring of Naraku in the fingerprint analysis program she had tried the DMV. That had come up with a dead end and a very frustrated woman.

Sango had asked her brother. He'd been with Naraku long enough to know how many detachments the demon had made. But, when she asked, she found that he didn't.

__

"I was under his control, but unless the offspring were assassins, I never met them. He did mention a few others, though."

So Sango had resorted to desperate measures…

She'd googled it.

Imagine her surprise when she'd gotten more information on the world's largest search engine than using their own resources.

A very chipper agent entered the room, arms full with the bounty of a few different vending machines. "I brought everything from soda to Cheezits."

"Great!" Sango groped around for the closest cellophane-wrapped snack, using her free hand to click on a promising link. "I think I found something here…"  
  
"Really?" Miroku perked up, sitting down next to his girl as he munched on a snickers. "What?"

"Naraku made other detachments that my brother had only heard of, so I checked google." She silently dared Miroku to laugh at her, but when only an interested nod was her answer, she continued. "There were a few mentions of people I can only guess were Kagura, Kanna, Juuroumau, et cetera, but not many mentions of anyone else. That annoying Goshinki guy, for one, was only mentioned twice. But, one thing did catch my eye. A picture."

Sango brought up a screen she had open, allowing the other agent to see. It was in black and white, with the many grays in between, but there was definitely three figures, one with the long curly tendrils of jet black hair that belonged to Naraku.

"Who had this?"

"Some message board… they were rambling on and on about assassins and the black market. One of them posted this. Member name, Nefarious Ninjas – don't ask." Sango pointed to the two smaller figures in the shot. "Look here, you've a better eye than me… can you distinguish some traits?"

Miroku leaned in closer, happy to rest his hand on Sango's upper thigh. With an angry glare his hand relocated to the arm of her chair, the agent giving a nervous chuckle. "Sorry, Sango, but it's hard to resist!"

Sango blushed, "Just… look at the picture."

"You should really learn how to be a little nicer to me… it's hard to concentrate with you so close and all." Sango shot him another glare. "O-kay. The picture, right. It looks to me there's someone with black hair and one with white like Inuyasha's… couldn't they be Kagura and Juuroumaru?"

"They could be, but look there." Sango gestured to a calendar tacked up on the wall in the hallway, seen clearly through the glass window that separated the hall and Naraku.

"It's recent… maybe a month or so before we attacked! If they're still out there, could they be taking over their 'dad's' company?"  
  
"Seems like a possibility." Sango nodded, looking over at him, her eyes glimmering with tears. "I thought we were done with him… but even in death he still finds a way to make life miserable."

-.-

A car zoomed by, thinking nothing of the sleek sports car pulled over to the side of the road. Mud splattered off the path, coating the tall grass in brown sludge.

The two had been sitting there for a moment, Kagome only staying because she could see he was working his way up to something. His mouth opened again, making her breath catch in her throat. But, like all the other times, it closed again, his eyes searching every nook he could find in her eyes.

"…yes."

It was whispered, but she could still hear it. "Yes?"

He kehed, making sure to keep some semblance of his usual self. "It's what I've been saying all this time, Kagome… I wanted it too" Inuyasha shot her a glare, trying to see what she would say. Yes, she had said she'd wanted it just like he had, but the memories with Kikyo still haunted him, made him over think his answer.

__

But this isn't Kikyo… this is Kagome…

Kagome started to laugh. _Really_ laugh. Whole-hearted laughter that rang in his ears.

His ears flattened, and his eyes lost their golden shine. She was… laughing at him?!

"I'm so happy!" Kagome admitted, a huge smile on her face.

Inuyasha found himself smiling, too. Whoever said smiles weren't contagious had never seen Kagome's.

Suddenly a hand was flying toward him, and the next thing he knew he was lying face down in the mud. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?!" Kagome berated, "Do you know what I went through? Wondering everyday if you cared about me or not?"

"You? What about me, huh? Why didn't you tell _me_ sooner? I was asking myself the same damn questions all the time during those three months. Then you come here and confuse the hell outta me… Gods woman, I'm a guy – I don't read in between the lines."

Kagome couldn't help but giggle at his bold confession, "I've noticed." One of her hands reached out, grabbing his. "Why do I still feel like you're not telling me something?"

__

How did she…? Inuyasha looked at their two joined hands and shook his head. "It's weird." Kagome adorably cocked her head to the side in confusion. "I know how you feel… but I still can't say it." _I love you, Kagome._

She seemed to understand. It didn't surprise Inuyasha because in his philosophy girl's read between the lines better than he did. "I can relate…"

That caught him off guard. "You can?"  
  
"Yeah… I can." She smiled, "But it doesn't matter, not right now, anyway. We're here, right? We've finally told each other what the others were dying for us to tell each other. Sango will be almost as happy as I am!"

Inuyasha smiled, "I know she will."

They sat in comfortable silence for a while, their hands still interlocked, until a question formed on Kagome's lips. "Inuyasha? What… are we?"

"Keh. You're mine and I'm yours now. You mean you didn't figure it out until now?" He let out a light chuckle, "Weird to say it after all this time."  
  
"Does that mean we'll stop arguing and just cuddle everywhere we go?"

Inuyasha scrunched up his nose in distaste. "No fights?"

Kagome nodded her head, albeit sadly.

"Well where the hell would the fun be in that?" Inuyasha asked, "We'd be some happy little poster couple… never fighting, always agreeing with each other." He shivered. "I'm not ready for that."

"Neither am I."

They slowly moved their eyes up, smiling wholeheartedly. Right now, there was no SJH, there was no past with Kikyo. Every reason they'd kept silent was erased for the time being, right now, they were together. That was all that mattered.

The theme song from Spiderman sounded.

-.-

"Have you gotten a hold of him yet?" Miroku shook his head.

"Yo. You've reached me, but I'm doing something more important right now. Say what ya want after the beep."

Miroku frowned at nothing in particular, hanging up and auto redialing their temperamental hanyou partner.

-.-

"Where's that coming from?" Kagome released Inuyasha's hand, coming out of her love induced stupor, to try and locate the catchy techno tune.

Inuyasha blushed. "It's my phone."

Kagome smirked. "You liked Spiderman the animated series?"  
  
"The theme song is cool!" Inuyasha insisted, patting his jean pockets. "It must have fallen out during our… um…"

"Kissing session?" Kagome watched in pleasure as Inuyasha's cheeks heated more. Kagome – one, Inuyasha – zero.  
  
"Just help me find it, woman!" He scooped up a great blob of mud, throwing it at his already thoroughly covered partner, before parting the mess in search of his phone. The ringtone stopped. Inuyasha paused. The ringtone started again. Inuyasha's ears twitched in succession.

__

"Inuyasha! Where are you? Inuyasha, answer us! Kagome left an hour ago to find you, we're worried that she's out in the rain somewhere. You better not be demon… INUYASHA!"

Said hanyou's ears flattened against his skull, blocking out the shrill scream of the angered Sango.

__

"Inuyasha, answer this phone right now or I swear I'll– "

Kagome tossed him the phone, letting him catch it deftly in his right hand. "Hello?"  
  
_"Inuyasha! Thank God you're alright! We thought you were out there getting killed – _killing_ your brother! Have you seen Kagome?" _  
  
"Do you honestly think I didn't hear that bullshit threat you just screamed at us?" Inuyasha asked dryly, trying and failing to remove mud from underneath his claws.

"Well, I don't – US? Where are you?"

"I'm sitting on the side of the highway covered in mud from head to toe with a certain girl that can't seem to keep her wonderful little hands off of me." He grinned smugly at the cherry flush staining Kagome's cheeks. Ah, an even score.

__

"You're what_?!"_ Sango screeched. He could just see it now: Sango screaming shrilly into the phone, knuckles white, pulling her hair out, with Miroku commenting how sexy she looked from the sidelines. _"How dare you be out with someone when we're all here worrying ourselves to death? Kagome is out there _right now _trying to find your sorry ass, and if you don't go out and find her this minute then today will be forever remembered as the day you could no longer be considered a man!"_

Inuyasha visibly winced. "Whoa, whoa, _whoa_ Sango! Calm down. I want you to talk to someone." He handed over the phone to Kagome, glad to get away from the huffy woman on the other end, and heaved a sigh of relief.

"Hi Sango-chan." Kagome, chipper as always… "What's up?"  
  
"Kagome?"  
  
"Yep. How are you? Sorry that I worried you two, but I couldn't let Inuyasha go out and do something he'd regret…"

"Kagome?"

"You said that already."

"So, Inuyasha was trying to fool us! That lying dog…"  
  
Kagome blinked, a playful smile on her face. "No, he was telling the truth. Every word. By the way, should I just deem these clothes garbage or is there a chance at salvation for them, because right now they are totally brown with mud."

"…I'll see what I can do." Sango cleared her throat before frantic yells probably directed at Miroku could be heard. _"InuyashaandKagomearefinallygettingtogether!" – _ pant – _ "Makingoutinmud…somewhere!"_

Both mud covered agents blushed.

__

"Inuyasha, you ol' sly dog, you!" Miroku's ecstatic voice praised. _"I hate to break up your dirty little rendezvous but we need you to visit Kagura."_

"We were _not_ having a dirty little rendezvous!" Inuyasha growled, snatching the cell phone out of Kagome's hands.

__

"I beg to differ. You're both dirty right?"

Inuyasha eyed the phone suspiciously. "Define what you mean by _dirty_."

"You're both covered in mud?"

"I knew that!"

"And you were making out, right?"

"W-we don't have time for this!" Kagome yelled, snatching the phone back, "Why do we need to see Kagura?""Because Kagura and the others might know about the other detachments Naraku created. The fingerprint definitely does not belong to any of the people under Sesshoumaru's roof. But, it is related to Naraku. One of them is bound to know."

"Why can't you just call them up and ask?" Inuyasha asked, crossing his arms haughtily. "Why do I have to go ask them in person?"

"Why can't you go ask them in person?" Miroku countered, feeling proud for thinking something like that up. "Oh, and by the way… How is she?"

"I'm still holding the phone, Miroku." Kagome hissed.

"Well then… see ya." Before either could respond to Miroku's latest perverted remark, he was gone.

-.-

Kagura yawned, stretching languidly underneath the red silken sheets. Sesshoumaru, the ever stoic dog demon, was snoring softly next to her, his arm wrapped securely around the wind sorceress' slim but strong build. It was hours after the little fire incident in the kitchen, and Jaken was still nowhere to be found, yet the house still smelt like charred dinner foods.

Just as Kagura was beginning to drift back off into oblivion a cheerful tune drummed through the house, causing two pairs of eyes to snap open.

Sesshoumaru eased Kagura behind him – lightening fast – and glared at the door, using his nose to identify the visitors. "He will die." With that, the ex-assassin grabbed up his robe and stormed out of the room, leaving his wife half asleep and confused in their bedroom.

As he neared the door, he could make out the rustling of fabric coming from their room, meaning his wife would be right behind him in five, four, three, two –

"Why is your brother and that girl here so early in the morning?" Kagura asked fiercely, upset at having to leave his embrace so early. Her sense of smell, although enhanced, was lesser than his, and could only now make out the two significant smells of Inuyasha and Kagome enough to tell who they were.

"I haven't the slightest idea." Sesshoumaru growled, rushing down the stairs at his demon pace.  
  
Jaken was slinking out from the library, heading to answer the door, when the two entered the main hallway. "A thousand apologies, Master Sesshoumaru! Because I burned down most of the kitchen once again, please allow me to answer the door…" Kagura smirked knowingly at the dwarf of a demon, but her husband glared classy daggers.

Jaken jumped up to reach the door handle, cursing his height, and then drew it back to see who it was.

Inuyasha and Kagome stood there, both of them looking like there was a big chance they had been dragged through a swamp on their way over.

"…And allow me to close it."


	8. Cursed

****

Mission Completed

__

Sakura's Note: Can you believe it? The fact that this update was posted in such a timely manner must be a mystery to you. But, this is how it's going to be from now on. High school is very busy, with homework in all my classes everyday. Even though I only have four classes a day, and have two days to do everything, there is still enough homework to make me cranky.

I consider writing for you wonderful people out there in the World Wide Web a stress reliever. It's amazing what writing another chapter can do for a person! Ha ha. Well, this chapter should have a bit more fluff between all our couples, but Kagome and Inuyasha's relationship will not be the usual 'I love you, Inuyasha! I love you, Kagome! Happily Ever After - the end.' Sorry, I know it's what we all want, but not this time. Keep in mind; neither had admitted loving the other just yet, which is totally different than usual for me.

Let me stop rambling, because half of you have already tuned me out already.

Enjoy and R&R!

-.-

__

Chapter 8: Cursed

-.-

"That went well." Inuyasha ignored her, and began to pound on the door again, causing about four lights from deep inside the mansion to come on. Kagome took this time to ring out her hair, allowing the mixture of mud and rainwater to dribble down her arm to her elbow, and then splatter onto the ground.

"I'll kill him. When they open the door, the toad is mine!" Inuyasha roared. He looked especially menacing, covered in slimy grime making him look like some dog-like, handsome yet grimy, swamp monster/half demon.

"Inuyasha, didn't anyone ever teach you the saying 'ladies first'?" Kagome chided tenderly, peeling a drying clump of mud of the agent's shoulder.

The hanyou smirked, "Nope."

Kagome stuck out her tongue, pulling down the skin beneath her right eye as she did so.

"You know, if someone else saw you right now…"

"They'd think you were a mentally challenged five year old." Someone finished.

Both agents jumped, despite all their years of training, and whirled to find the source of the voice.

Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes from the dry haven of his entrance way. "You two are pathetic. It is remarkable someone other than me has yet to point it out to you." He turned, leaving the door open in a customary 'Sesshoumaru Welcome'.

Jaken, upon seeing that the two angered agents were being let into the house, bounded up the stairs. "Master Sesshoumaru! How could you do such a thing to me? They will surely skin me alive! What have I ever done to you?!" He raced past a very tired and ruffled looking hair demon on his way up the stairs.

"Other than burning down the kitchen yesterday?" Yura drawled, her voice rough from sleep. Jaken just huffed, running around her legs to make it onto the second floor safely. "Must have been something I said…" She shrugged and traipsed down the stairs in a two-sizes-too-short silk robe.

"Are you supposed to be here?" She asked dazedly, staring at the two soaked agents curiously. "And are you supposed to look like two dogs who ran through a swamp trying to catch a Frisbee?"

Kagome bristled more so than the dog hanyou next to her. "Excuse me, but we were dragging a car down the highway for half an hour!"

"I hate to be the one to break it to you, but cars can be driven places – it's much easier that way." Yura yawned, then a look of horror dawned on her face. "Rin better not be with you." The old tone from her assassin days was evident in her voice.

The agents, who had given up on trying to explain anything to this woman, just shook their heads.

"What are you two doing here?" Sesshoumaru inquired, his arms folded stoically across his fluffy-robed chest; his terrorizing glare didn't seem to have the same effect when he was in his nightwear.

Towels flew at the two dirtied agents, one hitting each stomach and each face fully unfolded. The gust of wind that had carried the fluffed towels died down as Kagura entered the room looking quite proud of herself.

"I ask again: what are you doing in my house at four thirty in the morning?"

Kagura, always regal in her own right during the daylight hours, was a bit disheveled. Her hair was down, something rarely seen by anyone but Sesshoumaru, and her usually alert eyes still seemed a little fogged over. It was, after all, the early morning hours, and even demons needed their sleep. Especially those like herself.

"SJH." Kagome answered, standing on one of her towels to soak up the moisture.

Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes. "We're listening."

"Kagura?" The woman in question perked up at her name. "Did Naraku make any others like you?"

"What do you mean by that?" Kagura quirked a brow. "Wind youkai?"

"No, detachments – experimental offspring. Like Kanna, Juuroumaru, and Kageroumaru." Kagome watched the emotions play across the woman's face, then her eyebrows knitted together as if she was in pain.

"Kagura?" Sesshoumaru stepped forward, watching as his mate's eyes rolled back into her head and she fell forward. With his demonic speed, he reached her before she could hit the ground. But one thing was clear.

Something was wrong.

__

Definitely wrong.

-.-

__

"Get it over with!" The darkness made it impossible to see what he looked like, but she knew. His face had haunted her nightmares since she could remember. Secretly, she was happy it was so dark. Darkness meant he couldn't see where she was. Which meant she could try and get away– "ON WITH IT!"

She heard his breathing deepen, and his voice lower its timbre. "Do I need to show you again?"  
  
Would it buy her time…?

There was an irritated grunt, and then there he was. Except, he_ wasn't there. Tentacles of brown crawled with lives of their own beneath him where his feet should have been. His eyes glowed red, his arms lengthened, the black wife beater he wore underneath his leather jacket ripped, spikes exploding all over his back._

She screamed.

"What is it with you? Why don't you ever talk?!" The demonic being in front of her growled and hissed, wanting to hurt her. She knew it. She could feel his breath on her back even though he was in front of her. She could feel the rumbling in his throat in her own. "Foolish child."

Suddenly lights flooded her vision, and a stinging pain broke out on her cheek. It wasn't from a hand… it was from whatever it was that had replaced it. Long tendrils of black wrapped around her, choking her, scratching her, slicing her, burning her.

Everything was happening so fast, everything was dimming…

But if it was getting darker… then there must have been light…

She forced her stinging eyes open, finding herself in a room of white. Everything, everywhere, was white.

"Failure… weak, pathetic, low life, **failure**!"

A door slammed far off, then the scraping of metal. She craned her head around, looking at her surroundings. Was there any color? Had color ever existed? Or was it just a dream?

Screaming.

It was coming from everywhere. Covering her ears didn't seem to help – nothing helped. The scraping and screaming rose in volume, making it impossible to figure out where was safest. Nowhere was safe anymore.

Wait.

Red; something had color!

She crawled for it, knowing it would dart away from her. But it didn't. Her cool fingers wrapped around it, finding it to be a fan.

Flames. Screaming. Sirens wailing in the background. She looked around and could see and feel the fire lapping at her feet. It barely even stung.

"Kagura."

That was her! Someone was calling her! She turned, seeing the emotionless face of a pale girl. Kanna… She wanted to say it, let her know she was there… but nothing was working.

How desperately she wanted to scream "I'm right here!" but she couldn't.

"Where is she?"

"I cannot find her."

"What do you mean you cannot find her?"  
  
She recognized that voice…

Her partner… the one who had helped her do this… the flames, the killing, the destruction. Where was he?  
  
Then, out of the flames, he appeared.

"What are you doing just standing there? We have acquired what we came for, it is time to go." His golden eyes narrowed. "Kagura? What is it?"

She opened her mouth–

Bright lights.

"Finally. Success. After so many trials and errors."

She felt herself going forward, then turning down a shell-colored hallway. A baby cried in the distance, then another.

There was a door, open just enough to see inside.  
  
Two babies, one with the coldest eyes she'd even seen, were being examined. Shattered glass littered the tiled floors.

"Wait. I sense someone."

Another person looked up, scanning the room for intruders. She knew; she'd done it herself before. "There." Two pairs of eyes instantly focused on her, making her jump away from the door and down the hall.

She got up, tripped, and braced herself for impact. But it never came. Instead, she was falling, farther and farther into the darkness.

When she felt her feet touch solid ground, she still knew where she was. The hallways of the living quarters. The yelling and beating around stopped inside Naraku's office, and Sesshoumaru appeared, storming down the hall with tinges of red invading his irises.

"What happened in there?"

Sesshoumaru didn't answer as he angrily walked down the hall.

__

She knew he would show what was wrong, not speak. He was too angry, and she knew if he did say something she would rather he hadn't.

__

Sesshoumaru turned the corner, walking towards a door at the very end of the silent hall. As he slowly opened the door and entered the woman paused. With a deep breath she entered…

…unable to comprehend what she saw.

Rin, blood covering almost her entire body. Stains seeped through onto the bedspread, staining her once pink yukata red.

Naraku had always loved ancient Japanese clothing for Rin.

"Sesshoumaru, what did he do to her?"

__

"More than I want to know…"

"No… he didn't– "

"No. He didn't. If he would be hanging by his intestines right now."

__

The conversation was fading, she couldn't speak, but she heard her voice. She saw Sesshoumaru walking away, but their words continued.

__

"I wasn't here to protect her. She refused to kill an assassin who had directly violated Naraku's orders."

"So sick…"

"Are you coming with us, Kagura?" Rin's voice.

"You're leaving…?"

__

"I'll be damned if I let her breathe another breath here."

__

He disappeared from view. "I'm sorry Kagura."

__

There was a laugh off in the distance; it didn't fit into anything else. It made no sense. Kagura looked around her, trying to find her way in this faded world. Then there was Naraku's door. She opened it, yelling questions… then there was nothing.

-.-

"Well, what does that have to do with me?" Kouga hissed into the phone. "I don't even know the her, I'm barely even on the case." He angrily stomped down the hall, regretfully distancing himself from the sickly wolf demon in her room.

__

"We need the news relayed onto Ayame. Her cell is off." 

"Kagome, you know I love you." Kouga heard what was most definitely a protective growl coming from somewhere on Kagome's end of the line. "But Ayame hasn't slept in days because of this case. She needs some sleep. Can't you wait 'til tomorrow?"  
  
He could hear the disappointment and concern both evident in her voice. _"Alright, Kouga-kun. Please, when she wakes up, tell her that we need to get in touch with her."_

"Yeah, alright." With a meaningful look back in the direction of Ayame's bedroom, Kouga hung up. "Maybe the news will liven her up a bit."

He turned to head back, but stopped, leaning on the wall.

__

I won't… lose her will I? His hand trembled.

__

"Kouga?"

"Yeah?"  
  
Ayame turned over on her stomach, propping herself up with her elbows. "What's your favorite thing about life?"

The fifteen year old cocked his eyebrow. "Only a woman would ask something like that…" he mumbled, earning him a light slap on the arm.

"I mean it." Ayame swung her bottle green eyes to the moonlit sky with a smile. "I think it'd have to be color for me. What would life be like without it? I'd have never known what color the ocean was, what color the sky was, what color your eyes were."

Kouga looked over at the girl beside him, surprised. "I've never heard that one before."  
  
She quickly averted the comment. "What about you?"

He noticed her change in subject, but thought about an answer anyway. Humoring her wasn't all that bad, actually. Sometimes, he actually found out stuff about himself he didn't even know he had, all because she asked him questions only a girl could ask.

After a thoughtful pause, he looked up at the cloudless night sky above. "Smiles."  
  
Ayame did just that, "Smiles?"  
  
"Yeah, smiles. Imagine if no one ever smiled, it'd be a pretty screwed up place." Kouga shrugged. "Plus, I wouldn't get a reward every time I made you laugh, if there weren't any smiles."

She looked like she was hiding a blush. "I guess not."

Kouga smirked, closing his eyes. His breathing steadied.

"I'll always be there to smile for you, Kouga-kun…" With that, she too fell asleep under the stars, not knowing he had heard every word.

-.-

He glowered in his sleep.

__

Everything was burning. The flames he felt he couldn't see and the flames he could see he couldn't feel. The only thing he knew true was that his whole body burned. His flesh stung, burned from the inside out, the smell of burning chemicals dizzied him.

There was a groaning of the wood, and he could have sworn he heard a beep.

Darkness.

And a scream that he was certain was his own.

-.-

"He's coming too." A vaguely familiar voice bounced off the walls of his mind, echoing over and over.

"Wonderful." His voice was cold, made that way by his creator to strike fear into anyone who angered him. He was_ anger; Naraku had wanted it that way. "Bring her."_

There was a chuckle, then the rustling of cloth as foots descended somewhere.

"What…?" Naraku groaned, his pain rushing back to his nerves like nothing else he'd ever experienced.

Someone silhouetted by the light coming from a distance shook visibly with malevolent laughter. "It's very good you can speak already. It wouldn't be the same with your mute. The burns healed well, too."

Naraku coughed, his lungs still internally damaged. "What… kind of disrespect is this?!" he growled. The rumbling brought bile to his throat. He forced it back down painfully.

"Shut your mouth; you don't even deserve one." The figure spat. "I run things now – the way I want them run. You had your chance – you failed. Miserably."

"Where is she? Where is Kikyo?" Surely the aforementioned 'her' couldn't have been anyone else.

The white haired male smirked, showing a blunt fang and a cruel red eye gleamed. "You want to see her?" With a snap of his fingers a light ahead turned on to reveal a woman in her early twenties, raven hair in strings around her dead pale face.

"Kikyo."

Right next to her was Musou, looking as smug as ever holding the limp woman in his arms. He had liked the woman ever since he had matured – rapidly even by demonic standards – to an adult. Once he was deported with his brother to America, he had become especially bitter towards his father.

Now was his chance at payback, thanks to his little brother.

Naraku jerked awake, a light sheen of sweat added to the many layers of grime he had already acquired.

They would both die by his hand soon… very soon.

-.-

Kagome slid down the wall. She was having one of those moments again. Had she really helped kill her sister… all for a tiny jewel? The thought made her sick.

Her own flesh and blood had turned on her; the only family that she could remember. Her mother's face, her baby brother's… both faces would flash by from time to time, but when she tried she couldn't see them. And her father? She didn't even know where he was, or if he was still alive.

Memories of when the two of them had run around playing in the backyard, or when she'd had her first day of first grade and Kikyo had taken her to class. Where had the sister she knew and loved gone?

Everyone who met with the jewel led a very painful life. Sango, her entire family killed all for her brother. Her brother that was used for years as a slave to the sick demon Naraku. Miroku, whose father and mother had been killed in very much the same manner's as Sango's all because his father was from a line of monks. Kagura brainwashed to become a killer. Sesshoumaru and Rin, forced to lead a carefully constructed life of secrecy. Juuroumaru; losing his brother Kageroumaru. Kanna, thought only as an obedient minion because of how she was created…

And Inuyasha, who was an orphan since he was just a boy. Having to hide who he was completely alone, creating one of the hardest exteriors. If it hadn't been for him becoming an agent to avenge his family, would he have grown up different? Would he always be the guy that she only saw glimmers of when he let his guards down? Would he even need walls of protection for himself?

She felt a familiar stinging in the corners of her eyes. Kagome sniffed and wiped at her eyes furiously to stop the threat of her oncoming waterworks.

"Well, where would you want me to stand, asshole?! I wasn't in the way! Keh!" With a violent slam of the door, Inuyasha looked down the hall. "…Kagome?"  
  
Kagome took a deep breath. Maybe for once in his life Inuyasha wouldn't notice she'd been about to cry – again.  
  
When had she become such a crybaby, anyway?

"Oh, hey, Inuyasha!" Kagome smiled convincingly.

He frowned and loyally came to her side at the end of the hallway. "What's got you so worked up that you're crying in the hallway?" His words were gruff, but his voice was gentle.

She wasn't going to tell him. To tell him would mean mentioning Kikyo. He'd get that distant look in his eyes; she'd be refreshing his memory to his first love. But, in the end, she loved _him_, too. How could she lie to him to keep from hurting himself? It was selfish, and she couldn't do it.

"Everyone gets hurt."  
  
Inuyasha jumped at her voice, figuring she wouldn't answer after waiting two whole minutes. "Huh?" _Oh, yes, Inuyasha, that was very intelligent…_

"The jewel isn't a good thing to have, Inuyasha. It's a curse. A curse that causes death wherever it goes." Kagome rigidly sighed and looked straight ahead. "Look what it does to sisters." With a light, emotionless, laugh, she explained. "Makes one so blind with greed that she make a deal with a devil and bring grief to how many people now? Let's see… there's Sango, Miroku, Ayame, and Kouga… Let's not forget little Rin! Or Kohaku!"

"Kagome– "

"Wait, there's more! Kagura, Kanna, Sesshoumaru, Yura…"

"Kagome."  
  
"My mother, my brother – wherever they are, innocent families that we don't even know about…"

"Kagome!"

"Who else, who else…? Me, I guess. Oh! We can't forget the most important of all…" Her voice softened.

"KAGOME!"

"You."

Inuyasha froze. That one word had held so much sadness, so much regret, that he couldn't bear to hear anymore.

"She killed everyone you cared about. Everyone that accepted you for who you were and didn't want to change you. Your father, your mother…"

He hissed, not threatening, but pained. He hadn't spoken of them for years. "Izayoi."

"What?"

"Izayoi. My mother's name was Izayoi." He closed his eyes and saw his mother smiling as he ran towards her through the garden.

She had loved that garden…

"It's a beautiful name…"

Inuyasha nodded. "The best." He smiled, leaning his head back onto the wall. "She fit the name perfectly, too. My dad told me no one else had that name, not for at least one hundred years. I knew he was lying, how could he know? But, still, she owned that name."  
  
Kagome felt something in her soften, reaching out to him. She rested her head on his shoulder as he kept talking, his eyes looking off into the past.

"She smelled like… crushed flowers I guess. The scent never went away, no matter what. She was perfect. She was like an angel when she sang or danced… everything she did was the best I'd ever seen. There was this one time when the neighborhood kids were picking on me, trying to take something. She came out and chased them all away. I was crying, but when I looked up at her she just smiled… and told me everything was ok. I heard her crying that night. The next day… was the last day I smelled her scent."

He had never spoken of his mother, or exactly how he and his parents had been separated. All Kagome could seem to process was that her sister must have done this as a child… How could she have told someone to kill someone else's parents so young?

"She did it herself." Inuyasha whispered, sounding like he was thinking the same thing. "I just don't get it. How does a preteen personally kill anyone so easily?" His voice was hoarse; he was fighting back the tears.

Kagome shook her head, feeling her own tears resurface, over spilling onto her cheeks and onto his muddy shirt. "I'm so sorry, Inuyasha."

He paused in his deep breathing to look over at her comforting stormy blue eyes, realizing for the first time just how much he really hated seeing them wet with tears. He knew he loved her as a friend, and as a woman, but not until now did he truly realize just how much he wanted her to be his forever. He was deep in a hole, one he could never get out of, and he found that he didn't want to.


	9. Life's A Bearer of Bad News

****

Mission Completed

__

Sakura's Note: Finally I can upload this chapter without punctuation errors. I wasn't about to put you through all of that.

Also, to everyone who found the dream sequence confusing; my apologies. I was trying to make it seem a bit twisted, just like nightmares usually are. (At least mine o.O;) In dreams, scenes tend to blend together so much that beginnings and endings of certain parts are unclear and we're unsure of how we got there from wherever we might have been before.

That's why I didn't include any separations during the dream sequence, sorry that it confused people! Anyway, although this story is only at chapter nine, it is coming close to ending. Not VERY close, mind you, but the peak is coming. After you read this chapter, you'll see why.

This chapter is pretty short, although next chapter should be around 13 or 14 pages long. If I continued it here, then there would be no good place to stop it, and it would turn into something 20 pages long. (Not that you guys would mind...)

Now, for a bit of blatant plugging: I've posted a new story; Wish I Were You, and I'd like to get some more feedback on it. Based on how much of a response it receives, I might tweak it to publish for real.

.-.-.

__

Chapter Nine: Life's A Bearer of Bad News

.-.-.

Sometime during the course of the early morning, Kagome awoke to find herself held protectively by Inuyasha, her hands wrapped around his torso securely. When this happened, she knew she'd never really figure out. All that mattered was that they were there, and she had spent one night free of any nightmares.

She was also not sure what exactly they were, the night before was just now coming back to her.

__

"Keh. You're mine and I'm yours now."

Inuyasha's words brought warm feelings to her stomach, making her smile heartily. The question was to what extent where they an item? She felt silly asking herself questions like; _can I hold his hand? Will we kiss? _He hadn't said they were a couple, it seemed there was more to it than that.  
  
_I guess I'll wait for him to make the first move... He can set the bar._ Kagome pressed her face into his chest, blocking out the sunlight. There was a grunt from above her. "Morning."

She smiled knowingly; he always noticed everything. "Morning, Inuyasha."

"Kagome, about this morning when we were talking..."

Something inside her fluttered with nervousness. Would he regret telling her about his mother? Would he remember what he'd said and clam up like he always did?

"Thanks."

Kagome blinked out of surprise. "Why are you thanking me?"

"Because you were there for me -- you listened. People always offer pity, and treat me differently. I don't think they'll ever get that I don't want that kind of attention. I'm not telling them because I need some sympathy."

"I should be the one thanking you, Inuyasha." Kagome moved away from him enough so she could see his whole face. "When I first met you I never thought you'd tell me anything. You were arrogant and snobbish, but you opened up to me and showed me who you are. I feel honored knowing you felt like you could tell me about your mother. Izayoi raised a wonderful son in the time she was given, Inuyasha, no matter what anyone says."

Inuyasha scoffed. "If she was still alive she would kill me. Running off with guns blazing and assassins everywhere, bombs at every corner and demons out to kill me almost succeeding. She'd never let me do it. Parents are like that, sometimes they can smother you. Not that I really know from experience or anything."

The hanyou noticed that Kagome had gone quiet, and very still. He looked down at her to see a distant look in her eyes. She was staring off into space.

"I don't really know either."

Inuyasha berated himself for his stupidity. "Kagome, I'm--"

"It's ok," she looked up at him with a smile. "Really. I'm fine." She got up, brushing herself off. "You know, people aren't meant to sleep all cuddled up in a corner. I've got cramps everywhere." Kagome started to work fiercely at working the muscle spasms out of her body before she felt two warm hands on her back.

"Stupid. You'll rip your muscles up if ya keep at it like that." He gave her back a concentrative glare, putting all of his attention on making her feel better.

"Thanks." She gave a groan as the intense pressure in her back began to dissipate.

"Keh. If you weren't comfortable you should have said something." Inuyasha chastised. "We could have moved."

Kagome smiled, leaning into him and causing his hands to stop. She could feel him battling himself, thinking about what to do. _He's as unsure as I am... _Without a word Kagome took his hands and wrapped them around her waist gently. Almost instantly his arms tightened their grip and made her feel secure just like the night before.

Inuyasha breathed a mental sigh of relief. _She doesn't regret what she said._ "We should check on Kagura."

With an agreeing nod, the two of them headed off down the hall towards Kagura's bedroom.

.-..-.

Kouga walked down the sterilized white hall anxiously. He had not been able to get to sleep all night, opting to watch over Ayame as she slept instead. How had she hidden the illness for so long? The others had just started to notice her fatigue and she was already close to the point of no return.

Thankfully, there was always a backdoor.

And this time, the medical team (and the only others who knew of her illness) had sent word that they had a cure. At least, in theory.

But, a theory was always better than an empty slate.

He entered the medical lab. "Doctor?"

A young woman looked up from her laptop and jumped. "Oh, h-hello, Kouga." She seemed to be blushing, and her eyes darted nervously behind her thick-rimmed glasses.

"Hey..."  
  
"Doctor Eri Natoko. You can call me Eri." She smiled lightly and extended her hand.

"Eri." He shook her hand, only to see her face heat up like a cherry. Kouga could smell her nervousness and mentally cursed. It seemed like she _liked_ him!

How did that damnable dog do it? He handled everything in stride... Save for Shiori, of course.

"What did you find out?" He noticed her somewhat deflated persona, but shrugged it off. Eri brightened a minute later as she rushed back to her computer.

"Oh! Yes! Virus-S!" Doctor Natoko brought up a file to show a single strand of DNA rotating in the center of the screen. "There is only one thing on this earth that has the density of the virus in Ayame's body; the Shikon Jewel. We're counting on the fact that when Naraku gave us the fake that he matched the density. Somehow he used someone's miasma along with fragments of the jewel to make this disease, ergo that is how we can get the antibody."

"But if she's already gotten parts of it in her bloodstream then it's already gone."

"Naraku would not have destroyed an entire jewel just to poison one girl." Eri informed excitedly. "It's out there, and you need to find out where."

He almost regretted asking the next question. "How long do I have to find it?"

Eri's voice was full of regret. "Less than a week."

"A_ week?!_" Kouga stared at her in disbelief. "This is insane! That isn't enough time!"

"We have something that might stunt the effects a few hours, but it doesn't change the inevitable. Without that jewel there's nothing we can do."

The wolf demon looked more than a little shook up, but managed to keep together for the most part. "Thank you, Doctor Natoko... Eri." He dashed from the room at his demonic speed, leaving papers flying haphazardly around the room.

She nodded with a sorrowful smile, "Please find it."

.-..-.

Kanna looked up from her book. Kagura's eyes were twitching and her breathing was that of someone just rousing from sleep. "She's waking up."

Sesshoumaru looked up eagerly, allowing his stoic demeanor to crack. The woman who had gotten under all of that coldness to the soul underneath. What had Naraku done to her?

"Kagome." Not the first word Sesshoumaru expected his mate to say... But at least it was something. "Get her."

The agent looked up from her spot next to Inuyasha with a look of bemusement. She stopped at Kagura's bedside, where the demon already was sitting up. "Kagura?"

"There were others. Two, actually." Her voice was hoarse from being out so long, but it was gaining strength as she spoke. "Musou and Hakudoushi... I knew their names before Naraku drugged me."

Sesshoumaru frowned. "Kanna, have you heard of them?"  
  
The younger girl looked up from her sister and shook her head. "I did not know of any others."

"Naraku made sure no one knew of them. The drug must still be effective of part of my mind if I didn't remember that until now." Kagura cursed. "I thought I was cured!"

"Part of your subconscious must still be affected." Inuyasha ignored surprised looks from his brother and the other ex-assassins. Kagome looked proud. "You said something about my darts being the anti-virus. We should just use some more of it."

"And kill her?" Sesshoumaru glared, "You are truly a fool."

Kagome glared, making even Inuyasha's brother do a double take. "Just once, can you not listen to someone else's ideas without someone _making_ you, Sesshoumaru?"

"You've picked a fiery one, Inuyasha, the only thing you've ever done right... Even though she is a human."

Inuyasha bristled, "How dare you--"

"If I'm not mistaken, you hid from Naraku for years protecting a human like myself. And, wasn't it you who brought Kohaku here to heal when you could have allowed him to die?" Kagome stood up from Kagura's bed and scowled. "You try and taint his name and his heritage, Sesshoumaru, by calling him a lover of humans. But your father is his too, and he mated with a human! So either way you look at it, you're in a family of human lovers and you need to deal with it."

Kagura had an unreadable look on her face. She agreed that Sesshoumaru did have an unnatural hatred for humans. If anything, Inuyasha should have carried such hatred. With all the hatred they gave him, but he didn't. Sesshoumaru, on the other hand, had only been given respect for the most part, and was left alone. Most of the human world didn't even know youkai existed, despite all the ancient legends of their existence.

Kagome was a fiery girl, but that fire could get her in trouble one day. Inuyasha was her perfect match because despite what they said to one another, they shared a strong bond. But, there were others out there that wouldn't hesitate to hurt her because of that same spark.  
  
"Back down, woman." Sesshoumaru advised, "I only hold my temper half of the time."

This ensued a brief glaring match between the two. Tension filled the room, making everyone a little anxious.

"Damn it, Sesshoumaru." Inuyasha growled, "She ain't gonna back down. Let it go." How dare his brother threaten Kagome? She had shown him kindness for too long already!

"She insulted our father."

"Like you do?" Inuyasha countered, balling up his fists. He was emitting a low growl, one Kagome was certain she had heard before.

"Inuyasha, calm down..." She soothed, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I'm not in any danger. He can't hurt me."  
  
Sesshoumaru scoffed.

"Sesshoumaru, stop this!" Kagura commanded from her bed. "Something's happening to him!"

Despite his mate's demand, Sesshoumaru stood his ground. He would not show any further weakness in front of his brother. "I know what I am doing to him."

Inuyasha's breathing deepened, and his eyes were flashing from honey to red. His muscles were straining to hold his blood back, but it didn't seem to be doing much. "You're a bastard, Sesshoumaru."

"Step back, woman; he won't refrain from injuring you just to get to me."

"He won't hurt me." Kagome said confidently. "He loves me." _When he gets back to normal I'm dead..._ "He wouldn't do anything to hurt someone he cared about." She smiled at the struggling hanyou with trust, "You heard me, right? I'm okay, you don't need to change to protect me."  
  
Inuyasha's brother looked at the two in hidden surprise. Her effect on his brother was amazing.

In less than a minute the confused and tired hanyou was back. He was leaning on Kagome slightly for support, but other than that looked fine. He didn't say anything, but he was looking at Kagome strangely. Had he heard right?

"Where are these darts of yours, Inuyasha?" Kagura interrupted. She was as much in the dark as the rest of them about what had just happened. Kagome and Sesshoumaru seemed to be the only other ones clued in to what was going on.

Inuyasha seemed to jerk out of his thoughts from her voice. "They're with me. In Fang."

Sesshoumaru nodded, deciding Kagura would get better faster if he swallowed some pride. After all, Inuyasha did have resources that ex-assassins did not.

.-..-.

Sango jerked awake in front of her computer screen. She had dropped line, and once again cursed not getting DSL like everyone else had. They'd decided to forget her because she had been in America.

Meanies...

That was when she noticed something was out of place.

The room seemed different, even though nothing looked like it had been moved. It was like a new aura had seeped into the room while she had been sleeping.

"Miroku?"

She looked over her shoulder and saw him lying on her bed safely. He groaned at the sound of her voice, and opened his eyes. The lights were still on, and he squinted once he was fully awake. "What is it Sango?"

"Something's up." She concluded, jumping up. Despite being in a pair of short shorts and a baggy t-shirt, the agent still looked threatening. Sango grabbed her Hiraikotsu from its resting place in the corner. If anyone were in the base, she would be ready.

Miroku jumped up when he saw she was serious and took a look around. He, too, sensed something. "Where do you think it's coming from?"  
  
"Close." Sango muttered. "I'll go get Rin and Kohaku." The two kids had decided to stay in Inuyasha's room for the night since he had never shown up.

Miroku nodded and followed. "My staff's in Inuyasha's room as well."

They walked down the hall quietly, noting how silent it seemed. "What time is it?" Sango asked quietly. She looked over at her boyfriend curiously. He looked down at his watch.

"Ten thirty..." He frowned. "It's never this quiet here."

"I know." The two of them stopped at Inuyasha's door. On the count of three Sango threw open the door to find--

...absolutely nothing.

Save for Inuyasha's furniture and posters not a soul was in there. "Miroku..."

"This isn't good." He stated the obvious, but Sango needed to hear it to believe it.

"We can't be the only ones here." Sango pointed out. Someone else has got to be here somewhere." She sounded panicked, and reasonably so. How did an entire base full of agents disappear in only a few hours. "Where's Kohaku?! And Rin?!"

"We'll find them, they can't be far." Miroku soothed, allowing Sango to hold onto his arm.

"Oh, they can be." The two agents spun around, Sango's boomerang flying forward to hit the owner of the new voice. But, no one was there. "You missed." A flash of black disappeared from their view.

Sango ran after him, leaving Miroku to get what he needed. She wouldn't lose her brother again, and she wouldn't let them take Rin either.

As she rounded the corner where she could still hear the footsteps something slammed into her abdomen. A leg. A human leg. She could tell by the force of its blow.

Winded, but not rendered defenseless, Sango took a step back and ducked. The owner of the leg came into full view and tried kicking her in the stomach. Instead, she grabbed their foot inches before it reached her, flipping them over and into the wall. The freakiest mask she'd ever seen and wildly placed hair covered the person's face.

She could see a blob clad in black in her peripheral vision, but before she could reach it another person scored a hit to her side. Sango's face was set in anger, and her punch didn't miss the other's face.

The attacks were over for the moment, and she was free to look up. Assassins, dozens of them, were coming at her from every direction. What shook her, though, was the 'blob' she'd seen only moments earlier. It, too, wore a mask. The mask was much simpler than the others, but that much more chilling as well. The blob moved slowly, but it looked to have more than just two arms and legs.

"Nice to finally meet you face to face." The voice that she had heard in Inuyasha's bedroom came from behind a few of the bulkier assassins to her right. When she turned, she came face to face with a man. He looked human, but then again, so did Naraku. His eyes were black, along with his shoulder length hair, and if he weren't evil, Sango would have thought he was handsome. "Kagome."

Sango froze for a moment. How did anyone confuse her for Kagome? "My name is not Kagome." She informed tersely. "What did you do to everyone?"

"They'll find themselves awake in a matter of hours." The man shrugged nonchalantly. He stopped smirking when he registered what he'd just heard. "You're not Kagome?"

"It doesn't matter! What do you want? Who are you?" Sango poised her Hiraikotsu behind her back, ready to toss it at any moment. She spared a glance behind her to make sure no assassins were sneaking up on her, than returned her glare to the stranger.

"The name's Musou, and I'm here to kill you."


	10. Gone

****

Mission Completed

__

Sakura's Note: Here's chapter ten. It's shorter than most other chapters, but fighting scenes tire me out. Ha ha, sometimes I feel like I'm the one doing it all. Thank you to everyone who reviewed last chapter, they were all very much appreciated. Next chapter I hope to have a response to all reviews, so if you have any questions, be sure to ask them.

Enjoy this chapter!

.-..-.

__

Chapter 10: Gone

.-..-.

Inuyasha yawned behind his hand, watching lazily with Kagome from the corner of the room.

Sesshoumaru was sniffing the darts, trying to figure out what all was in it. "Who made this?"

The hanyou looked up tiredly, "Shippou."

"Shippou?"  
  
"A kitsune boy." Inuyasha supplied listlessly. "He's an expert at magic and--" He pulled out his cell, which he had put on vibrate. "Yeah? ...Miroku? What is it? Miroku?"

Kagome frowned, leaning in to listen as best she could. She could only make out a few words, but they were panicked.

"We're coming, keep at them till we get there." Inuyasha waited a moment, "Miroku? Miroku?" There wasn't a response. With an angry growl he closed his phone. "Assassins are at the base. Miroku and Sango are the only two people there."

Sesshoumaru looked up from his sleeping wife. "Rin?"  
  
"She's gone, Kohaku too." He grabbed up his jacket. "Come on Kagome."

"Right behind you." She gave an apologetic look to Kagura, even though she was asleep, and darted out of the room. "What did he tell you?"  
  
"He was fighting someone, he couldn't get that many words out." Inuyasha headed down the hall, barely missing running into Jaken. "But he did say everyone was missing."

"Was Sango ok?"

"All I know was that she was there, Miroku didn't have time to tell me anything else." Inuyasha jumped into the car, started the ignition, and pulled out of the driveway. "This is hitting too close. It's not Naraku's style, his kids seem to get smarter all the time."

.-..-.

"You are not Kagome, but you do look like you could pose a threat..." Musou smirked devilishly. "But I won't be the one to dirty my hands with you. Noh, take care of her."

"I'd be pleased, Musou..." The bulky, bumbling assassin clothed in black hobbled forward. "I will take care of this one. Do not worry..." She cackled from her masked face.

Musou turned with a wave of his hand, "Do as you wish. There are much larger fish to fry." He looked over his shoulder, "Enjoy your battle, woman. And take note of Noh's face, it may very well be the last thing you ever see." With a sickening wink he sauntered down the hall.

Sango glared, _Miroku, where are you?_

"Such a beautiful girl..." Noh hissed. "A _wonderful _addition." She lunged forward, her hulking frame preparing to surround the agent in front of her. "A wonderful addition, indeed."

Sango glowered, "Addition to what?"

"My body, of course." Noh shrugged.

There was something odd about it though. It seemed as though she shrugged in multiple places, her arms spread all over her body. Sango gasped once she realized.

This woman was going to absorb her.

.-..-.

"There's a method to my success father," Hakudoushi looked into the cell with his eyes the color of molten metal with a devious smirk. "The trick is to ask yourself 'what would Naraku do' and do the exact opposite."

Naraku was past jumping up and fighting to get to the demon, instead he just sat in the corner and glared. This monster he had created, hoping it would become his loyalist, most powerful weapon, had been so powerful it had overcome him. It was his biggest mistake, and he would regret it forever.

He could make out Kikyo's sleeping figure in the corner, her breathing steady and her chest rising and falling with each breath. Her stringy hair, which hadn't been washed in weeks, clung to her head. She still looked beautiful. Then he noticed her fingers drumming lightly on the ground. A second later she stopped.

"You can ignore me all you want, but I know you hear me. You're jealous, aren't you? Jealous that I got this far without you, and now you are the one behind bars. I should study you as you did me, but it would be a long and boring process. Don't you think so?" Hakudoushi snickered under his breath. "Naraku, how stupid must you be to realize you should never give so much power to one demon?"

"Sometimes, Hakudoushi, you tend to forget very important things in life."

Hakudoushi turned, looking at the shadowy figure in the back of the room. "Ah, you're awake."

Kikyo's eyes were haunting the darkness with their icy depths. They almost glowed, and were the only things anyone could see clearly in the dark. She just stared...eyes penetrating the two demons. "You both are fools. Fools I should have never involved myself with."

"Kikyo..." Naraku looked up with fire in his eyes. "What are you saying?"  
  
"The jewel is in good hands with Kagome, although she is ignorant to its powers. Only purity will make it work completely, you seem to forget that." Kikyo pointed out matter-of-factly.

Naraku frowned, wasn't she on his side?

"Musou is out finding that Kagome girl," Hakudoushi continued, "So I will be able to make as many wishes I want."

Kikyo continued to peer through the darkness at the two with scrutiny. His plan would fail. No matter what she felt towards Kagome, she would always believe that her sister was not a fool, and could easily defend herself.

Kagome had stolen the one constant thing in her life that wasn't completely shrouded by darkness. They hadn't seen each other for over a decade, and they were reunited by him. The one person Kikyo believed could become hers. Of course, persuasion would be needed. She had killed his parents.

They'd been her first target once she heard demons roamed the earth. The thought of a human woman and a youkai man mating to bear a child sickened her. So, she had found a couple that stood for exactly what she hated. And she'd killed them. Until she met Inuyasha and heard how his parents were killed... She didn't know they had already had a child. Nor that it had been Inuyasha -- _her_ Inuyasha.

He seemed like a rough, cold boy of fifteen when she'd met him. After a few months, though, he started to open up. Inuyasha had been reluctant, almost as if he expected her to deceive him at any moment. Guilt still weighed down on her heart; she was the source of it all. Without loving parents he had gone to America alone and become an agent.

Where she had thought he was an assassin, he had been a spy sent to try and kill her. At the last moment she'd saved him...

So why didn't he still love her?

.-..-.

"People need to learn how to drive." Inuyasha stated sharply, swerving around another row of moving vehicles. "I bet half of these people bribed the DMV to give them their licenses." He ran a red light and entered the highway.

Kagome had never been more thankful for a seatbelt before in her life.

"You alright? You look a little pale." Inuyasha looked over at her.

"KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD!" Kagome screeched, waving frantically.

Inuyasha darted a glance at the road and swerved to the right. "Where did that truck come from?"

"I wouldn't know," Kagome answered the same way she would answer about the weather. As a matter of fact the day was actually quite sunny now that she thought about it. "I've been a little preoccupied..."

The hanyou next to her didn't seem to take the hint. Kagome agreed with the way he was driving, they needed to get to Sango and Miroku, but that didn't make it any less terrifying. _It's pretty sad that I'm more terrified of Inuyasha's driving than of murderous demons..._ She mused with a smile.

"We're almost there..." Inuyasha muttered, cutting clear across the road. "Just five more minutes." He stepped on the accelerator, "Make that four...three..."

"Ok, please slow down..." Kagome requested nervously. "We need to get there in one piece."

"Uh huh, one piece, gotcha."

Kagome gave him a flat look. "You're not listening to me, are you?"

"I'm in a zone right now, Kagome."

"A zone?"  
  
Before she could get an answer, Inuyasha pushed down on the breaks with a serious look on his face. "We're here."

"I'll get Tetsusaiga once we get inside, none of them would have been able to touch it if they're all demons..."

"I'll get my bow, I can fight easiest with that." Kagome nodded to herself, then gave a quick smile to Inuyasha. "Don't go too far without me."

He nodded, then jumped out of the car, running into the building with nonhuman speed.

.-..-.

Miroku slammed his staff between the demon's eyes, causing it to disintegrate almost instantly. "Must have been a weak one..." he muttered, turning to block another attack. They were everywhere, flooding from every door he could find. Who had sent them, he wasn't sure. Sango was too busy fighting to tell him anything that had happened. They were back-to-back, but the only sounds they made were grunts and gasps for air.

There was a shriek up ahead, then another, and finally a roar. Flashes of light appeared right before each demonic wail. Someone else had come.

"What's going on?" A demon hissed angrily, backing up into a corner. "Who did we forget?"  
  
"Me, you smelly halfwit." The growl was coming from a hill of youkai in the corner. The mystery fighter jumped out of the dog pile, eyes ablaze with anger. "Must be feeling pretty stupid to forget to subdue a hanyou, eh?" He smirked, running forward in a blur.

Another assassin sped forward, almost equal in speed. It roared, hissed, and shrieked, claws slashing empty air. The honey-eyed half demon 'keh'ed' and leapt into the air, aiming for the demon's throat.

He didn't miss.

"Inuyasha!" Sango breathed a sigh of relief.

Some of the assassins began to panic. Fighting a human was one thing, but fighting Inuyasha was a different story entirely.

"Who's next?" Inuyasha stalked forward, Tetsusaiga in his hands. They had been temporarily spooked, but quickly smothered their fears and began to attack.

One demon, who looked much more human than the rest, managed to deliver a kick to his stomach. The two started to duke it out on the spot, any other assassin that came within five yards getting slashed to pieces from both opponents.

Kagome rushed onto the scene, her arrows slung on her back and her bow in his hand. When she got to the hall a breath froze in her throat. There were so many of them! Immediately she released an arrow, knowing it should get at least two down.

There were two cries, then two bodies fell. Blood pooled around them, then one disintegrated. At least she knew she hadn't forgotten her training; she'd been using a gun for so long she'd been worried.

She spotted Inuyasha up ahead to the left, fighting a stronger looking youkai. Sango and Miroku were smack dab in the center of the room, her boomerang and his staff cutting and knocking out as many assassins as possible. Kagome noticed a blob of what looked like random human parts heaped in the corner, a freakish mask splintered next to them. Truthfully, she didn't want to know.

"Kagome!" All three assassins attacking Sango froze. Sango along with them. They knew who Kagome was now. She needed to think fast. "Where's Kagome, Aya?!"

The bow-carrying agent frowned, "Who's-"

Sango shot her a look that she hoped gave her an answer, then began to attack the distracted youkai. Out of nowhere an arrow flew past Sango and Miroku's shoulders and back into a group of demons preparing to fight. There was a loud thud, then one youkai lie face down in the middle of the rest.

Miroku felt his spirits lift at that moment. Yes, they'd been able to handle at least four dozen assassins themselves, but now the others were here and they would regain control of the base much quicker.

"Kagome, behind you!" He punched a demon, then called out again. Kagome swerved, only getting cut with the tip of its claws. She gasped and kicked his leg out from underneath him, delivering an uppercut to his jaw on his way to the ground.

Inuyasha watched as blood dribbled down her shirt from her side. He swung his sword, causing several demons to disappear or collapse to the ground. Sango and Miroku had the remaining five assassins under control; he ran to Kagome. "Kagome!"

"I'm alright," She smiled, lifting her hand up from the wound. Kagome wasn't surprised that it came up covered in blood.

"You're bleeding!"

"The cut is pretty small, I'm just a bleeder." Kagome gave a light laugh, getting up to stand. "Besides, I think it's slowing down."  
  
"'Cuz you're out of blood!" Inuyasha snapped, lifting her shirt to see for himself. It really was just a small cut, not even near any vital organs, but the thought of someone hurting her sickened him. It had all happened in a second, what if it had been someone else? Musou or Hakudoushi?

He shook his head and put on an angry face. "Be more careful next time!"

Kagome rolled her eyes, "If you want to say you're glad I'm alright and you're mad you weren't here to protect me then just say so." His eyes widened, making his expression quite cute. "Besides, I'm not dying, and its too late to make a big deal of this now." She looked over where the other assassins seemed to have just disappeared.

"They just ran off..." Miroku laughed, leaning on Sango for support. She seemed to be doing the same thing to him, making a weird sort of human triangle. "I guess they had more sense than we gave them credit for."

The hall was bloodied beyond belief, smears all over the floors. It felt as though an evil aura had wrapped around the area.

"What happened to everyone else?" Kagome asked. "How could they all disappear so easily."

"Amazing, isn't it?" A voice from further down the hallway asked. "How easy people fall into my trap." The lights cut off, Kagome screamed, and the lights resumed.

"KAGOME!" Inuyasha looked all around him, "Kagome!"

"Where is she?" Sango asked, panicked, "What happened to her?"  
  
"You have a choice, Inuyasha... Save the agent, or save the agency. As we speak a bomb is ticking beneath this place. All of this agency's staff are lying unconscious there, and they won't awake for two other hours. The bomb is set to go off in ten minutes. Kagome will be outside for five minutes, after times up, whichever you didn't chose will be gone."

A dark figure appeared in the hallway, the colors of his clothing appearing a few seconds later. "Make your choice." Then he was gone.

"Sango, Miroku, go disarm the bomb, I'll go get Kagome."

"Uh, uh, uh... That's cheating." Musou's voice answered smugly. "Inuyasha chooses, and all three of you must go. Otherwise Kagome is dead on the spot."

"We can't let them take Kagome!" Inuyasha hissed, clenching his fists.

"But there are hundreds of people's lives at stake!" Sango argued. "They won't kill her, she's too valuable. We know for a fact she's the only one that can make a wish on the shards."  
  
"She's right, Inuyasha." Miroku agreed sadly, "We need to save the agents first."

Inuyasha looked like a mess, but nodded nonetheless. "Alright." He sped off in the direction of the stairs, not trusting the elevator at a time like this.

He kicked down the door to the basement, entering pitch black darkness. It was silent, not even a heartbeat. _Are they all..._ Inuyasha stopped, sniffing the room carefully. He growled. No one was there! He tried listening for some kind of mechanical device, TNT,_ anything_, but there was nothing.

"DAMN IT!" He roared. With all of his power he pushed himself up the stairs, only a blur to the others who were close to the bottom.

"Inuyasha!"

"There's no bomb!" He growled, disappearing back to garage level. He reached the garage just in time to hear tires screech off in the distance. "Kagome! _Kagome!_" Inuyasha started to run, but it wasn't any good.

The car was out of sight.

.-..-.

Kagome kicked at the back door for the tenth time. It wouldn't budge at all. She tried aiming for the glass, but it didn't shatter. The car was separated into two sections; divided by a one-way mirror. All she could see what her face, while she knew they were leering at her from the other side. The thought of her being right scared her the most.

"Let me out of here!" She demanded, banging on the glass. The locks to the door on her right had been melted so that it was impossible to open. The other side was set for child-proof.

She was helpless.

Tears were threatening to fall, but she wouldn't let them. At any moment someone would find her and when they freed her...

She'd kill whoever had kidnapped her.

Kagome sighed, removing her denim jacket. She spread it out, then held it over the mirror. The one-way mirror only covered a third of the partition, the rest was just car fabric and plastic, making it impossible for them to see her at all.

Maybe if she could make them worried she was escaping they'd stop the car?

She heard faint conversation in front of her, it sounded worried. Then she heard what she'd been hoping to hear.

"Stop the car."

.-..-.


	11. Primary Target

**Mission Completed **

_Sakura's Note:_ I deserve whatever is coming to me. I haven't updated…in a very long time. Period.

Onto story-related stuff. This chapter picks up a little earlier than when Kagome blocks the window with her jacket. So, they won't be saying 'Stop the car' for a little while. (Just so no one gets confused)

Also, to clear another thing up; Although they are very near New York City, the agency isn't. The hidden entrance (which hasn't been used since MIM) is located in NYC, but the actual agency is located on the outskirts (perhaps even in New Jersey, the world…might never know). Therefore, the roads Inuyasha speeds along all the time barely ever see any cars.

.-..-.

_Chapter 11: Primary Target_

.-..-.

Sango and Miroku had stayed behind to try and find the missing Agency personnel, leaving him and his hanyou capabilities to handle it.

That was fine with him.

He could get to her faster without the others slowing him down. His legs were much more reliable, and he couldn't take any chances. _Kagome…I'm coming for you!_

Wind whistled in his ears as he sped down the neglected road. He could smell car exhaust up ahead. The trail was heating up.

Narrowing his eyes and pushing himself forward, Inuyasha was able to see his target up ahead. A very smudged version of Kagome penetrated the glass.

.-..-.

Musou checked his sunglasses in the rear view mirror, ignoring the protesting girl in the backseat. "She is an awful lot of trouble, Hakudoushi... Why are you so dead set on capturing her?"

The pale demon looked over coldly. "That woman possesses an inner purity that holds power over the jewel." He glared out the window, his fingers lightly touching the roof of the car. "Without her it would be much, much harder to control it. Kikyo might be able to, but she is far too tainted to do any real good."

Musou's attention focused intently on his brother. "Say, Hakudoushi... Where is the jewel, anyway?"

Hakudoushi eyed his brother for a moment, "Your memory is a flighty thing."

"I wasn't born with one." He stated gloomily. "It isn't my fault."

"I count it as an advantage. If you're caught they won't get anything out of you." Hakudoushi said impassively. Looking behind him, Hakudoushi frowned. Something was speeding towards them. "What is that?"

Musou looked out the rear view mirror, slightly perturbed. He couldn't make out anything from the distance. "It's hard to tell..."

The window to the back was covered in denim in less than a second. Hakudoushi cursed loudly. "What is she doing?"

His older brother shook his head. "I don't know. She must have noticed it too."

Hakudoushi looked behind him, banging on the Plexiglas. His eyes darkened. With a lightening fast turn of his head, he looked out the side window. "Stop the car."

.-..-.

"Come on…Come on!" Kicking at the door again, Kagome bit her lip. The car stopped whilst she began gathering up her lower body strength.

The driver's side door opened and slammed shut. _They saw him! _Looking out the tinted glass at Musou, eyes wide, Kagome held her breath.

He stopped for a moment, looking his hostage straight in the eye, before continuing towards the back of the car.

Pounding her hands against the glass, Kagome tried to warn her savior. "INUYASHA! He's coming! Musou's coming!" She knew he'd heard her when Inuyasha darted to side to avoid a collision with the other demon.

Not allowing her denim jacket to fall from its place, Kagome used her right leg to kick at the glass. A sharp pain ran up and down her leg but she continued. "Perseverance, Kagome, perseverance."

.-..-.

"They've reached us."

Yura nodded, strands of hair coming from seemingly nowhere wrapping themselves around her wrists in support. Diving out of the tree expertly, the hair demon soared towards the stopped vehicle ahead of them.

After allowing Yura the right of way, Sesshoumaru disappeared in a blur of white, gold, and blue, followed closely by Kagura.

Upon her feather, Kagura threw the smoke bomb down towards the car. A moment later, sharp razors formed of air flew towards the passenger side. "It's him… Sesshoumaru, it's the one from Naraku's hideout!"

She saw the blur give a slight nod before, as though from thin air, her mate materialized by the car.

Yura had disappeared, but Kagura knew she wasn't far away. Most likely, a deadly trap incase of an attempted escape was being formed…one that could behead anyone who tried to run.

.-..-.

His ears easily honed in on the sound of Kagome in the backseat. Suddenly, the black blur collided with him, something sharp threatening to stab him in the stomach at any moment. Inuyasha jumped back in surprise, glaring at the materializing figure. By his smell he could tell already he was made from Naraku.

Seeing Kagome frozen in shock as the back of the car was sliced in half, Inuyasha cursed at his half brother's abrupt handling of the situation.

_I can't blame him for being here, but how dare he scare Kagome! _

Kagome screamed, rolling to the left before the bright yellow energy could slice through her. Her ears ached from the screech of metal slicing up around her.

After the metal cooled, all that remained was smoke from the recently deployed bomb. Kagome coughed, rubbing her arm, and made a dash for it. The car was wasted, but the other passenger was still alive.

_Without my bow...it'll have to be hand-to-hand combat..._ Kagome swallowed, but her mouth had gone dry. Something was coming fast, setting off alarms from all of her senses. She turned in time to see a blur of someone swinging through the air towards the debris. An invisible force shot out, barely missing Kagome's cheek. The demon rushed down it at Inuyasha-like speed.

Yura.

If Inuyasha noticed the new arrivals, he didn't show it. His whole incentive was on Musou, who was fighting with as much energy as he'd had in the beginning. Unlike Inuyasha, he hadn't had to run the entire way.

Kagome wanted to call out his name so badly, wanted to help, but her conscience stopped her. _It'll distract him, he'll look my way and then it could be all over. I have to protect myself for him so all he has to worry about protecting is himself._

.-..-.

Kikyo's eyes were narrow slits; hands outstretched towards the door. With glowing hands, a burst of energy shot out sending the bolted door flying onto the floor. She smirked, "The jewel. Scattered...how clever."

She did not spare Naraku a glance before climbing the stairs and entering the new atmosphere. Despite the unpleasant aura surrounding the place, the home she'd been stored in was quite cozy. The floor was carpeted white, the same color as almost everything else in the room. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a familiar glow.

Ignoring Naraku's insistent protests from below, Kikyo confidently approached the table. Lying there in a state of carelessness, was a piece of the Sacred Shikon no Tama. The sleek white table sparked at Kikyo's touch, but died down in an instant.

Pure energy shot through the table, encountering the dark black shard. Almost instantly, it became pure, shooting up into her awaiting hand. Controlling the fickle shards had always been an easy task.

Metal clanged against metal down below, but Kikyo only walked farther from the basement towards what looked to be the kitchen.

Either her senses were completely off, or there were no other shards in the vicinity. It made no sense that Musou and Hakudoushi had only one shard. Where were the rest?

Where was Hakudoushi's confidence coming from if he didn't have them in his protection? It was foolish to carry them around with Inuyasha searching for them.

"So, your idea is to divide and re-conquer later." It took her a moment, but the tattered business card lying atop the kitchen countertop had given her an answer instantly. "Shikon Jewelers. Clever."

.-..-.

By splitting the car in half, Sesshoumaru had caused it to explode. Chunks of metal were scattered across the road haphazardly, causing Inuyasha and Musou to weave around them to attack one another.

Kagome stopped beside a tree long enough to notice someone dart behind her. Jumping forward and skidding on the ground, she missed the paralyzing dart by only centimeters. Gasping for breath, she rolled across the flame-covered ground towards the battle.

A rather large chuck of scrap metal blocked her from fully seeing the individual, but she could already see the glowing eyes through the flames.

"You're still my captive, girl…"

Sliding across the ground far enough that she reached her target, Kagome kicked random rubble towards her attacker as a distraction. As soon as she was close enough to wrap her fingers around the burning, sharp, thin piece of metal, Kagome gave a silent prayer.

Pure energy filled the metal rod, making the flames roar with life, glowing white. With an accuracy she had learned with Myouga and perfected with Miroku, the pseudo arrow made it's way towards the white demon in front of her.

Jumping up into a run, Kagome didn't bother to look back.

"Kagome!" Kagura looked a bit faint, but much better than the way they'd left her. Heaving herself up onto the immensely large feather, Kagome missed something flying towards her.

Hakudoushi looked angry. It wasn't a surprise, considering his lack of a hand and the burning of his left arm. Roaring in anger, Hakudoushi shot another burst of energy towards the feather.

With a swipe of her fan, Kagura shouted out a counterattack. "Ryuujin no mai!"

A glint of something shot forward, causing Hakudoushi to skid to a stop before he was sliced in two.

Watching from high enough in the air that Kagome was unable to be hurt, the two looked down on the scene.

Looking over at Kagura, Kagome noticed the extreme concentration in her eyes. She was waiting for something. Kagome followed her gaze down to the fight on the ground where Musou has just fallen by one of Inuyasha's blows.

An opportunity presented to her, Kagura swiped down her fan, whispering something Kagome couldn't understand. Two of the razor sharp daggers of wind sliced through Musou's right leg. He was down for the moment.

"Kagura, I have to help Inuyasha-"

"Hakudoushi can fly." Without another word, the feather zoomed down towards the ground just as a surging purple ball of energy, carrying said demon, crashed down beside them. The force field's energy had destroyed the asphalt, creating a crater in the earth.

Letting out a scream, Kagome somersaulted onto the road. Landing on her feet, she dashed towards Inuyasha. _You're the only one who can truly protect me…please forgive me for distracting you._

"_INUYASHA!_"

At the last moment, Musou lunged.

"Inuyasha, left!"

Ducking to the left, Inuyasha cursed the blind spot and grabbed onto Kagome. "Kagome, are you ok?"

"I'm fine! Just fight! Know that I'm going to have your back, and you have mine!"

.-..-.

"Nothing." Running a hand through his hair, Miroku leaned against the wall. "Where is everyone?" Looking up into Sango's face, Miroku beckoned her towards him. "Don't worry, we'll find him. You won't lose him again."

"I already have."

Breathing in the scent of her hair, Miroku closed his eyes. "No, you haven't. He's out there somewhere, and he's himself. There's no reason why we won't find him. Inuyasha will be back and Musou will be defeated, Kagome will be back, and, we're going to find Kohaku."

Nodding into his chest, Sango sighed unevenly. "Let's go search the electronics branch now." She straightened out her clothing, trying to best to pull it back together.

The two walked side by side down the hallway until they reached the bolted shut doorway.

"I doubt they are in here…Musou had no way of finding out the pass code. It changes every twenty four hours for most of the employees."

"We might as well try and see." Miroku motioned Sango forward to let her scan in her fingerprint.

Typing in her own personal pass code after the print analysis, Sango waited with baited breath for the multiple locks to unlock and allow them inside.

The doors slid open, revealing another entryway.

"This certainly is a high tech area…" Miroku tapped at one of the glass protected areas with amazement. "There is a chance that he found his way inside here. Maybe he used one of the agents to get inside."

Sango nodded distractedly before running ahead towards another corridor full of electronic security.

Staying back to check behind some of the larger equipment, he noticed something.

Out of the corner of his eye, something moved.

Sango reappeared with a whisper. "Miroku." Motioning him to follow, Sango disappeared around the corner once again.

Jogging towards her, Miroku stopped at the larger, mauled door.

"Something tells me this is where they're being held…"

"The door is jammed though," Sango tried to type in her security number again, huffing in frustration. "It's too mangled to open properly. If we want in, we're going to have to find another way."

"And, of course, there are no air vents in here…It'd be way too easy for a break in." Sighing, Miroku looked around the room for another option. "Aha!"

"Miroku, that's a broom."

"Yes, it is." Miroku smiled proudly. "I've trained with a staff all my life, I think I can use this to break down the door." Taking a considerable amount of steps back, he threw the broom stick forward javelin style. It flew straight, with enough force to have probably cut through Sango's stomach. Although it began to splinter on contact, the force was enough to knock the steel-enforced hinges to snap.

"All we need to do know is lift it off." With a trained flick of her hip, Sango's foot slammed into the doorway, causing dust and debris to fall around her. "I could use some help, Miroku."

She felt his eyes on her, but didn't want to know where. "MIROKU!"

It took a moment, but he was by her side, poised to kick. "On three?"

Sango nodded. "One…two…!"

Both flew forward, both their right feet hitting the doorway with all their strength. It slammed to the ground, leaving them in complete darkness.

Something was breathing.

"Miroku, behind you." Sango knocked him to the ground and punched blindly in the direction of the breaths. She made contact with something old and slimy, but ignored her repulsion. "It's a trap!"

She heard the thing fall to the ground, assuming Miroku had tripped it. "Where are you?" Two slimy hands grabbed her, tossing her across the room.

"There're two of them at least!" She heard Miroku fighting to her left, but couldn't see but little glimmers of him. "Follow my voice!"

"Ngh…" Holding her head, Sango stood. "I can't, there's one over here."

Miroku didn't respond for a moment. "…Then there must be three."

Slamming her fist into the gut of her attacker, Sango slid under it, throwing it over her shoulder. At the sound of its back slapping against the ground, she made a dash for it. "Miroku-!"

Miroku slid towards her on the slime on of the monsters had left behind. "It's no good, we can't see them in the dark. There's no electricity!"

_Electricity…_Jumping over a dark heap, Sango ran for a wall. _Wires, wires, come on…!_ _Yes! _Ripping at a small cord, she felt it snap. "Ok! We've got light!"

Sparks flew from the wire, falling to the floor. Something slimy shined intensely, then, in the blink of an eye, caught fire.

A fire broke out by the empty wall, burning on the essence of what Sango could only think could be a demon.

"Sango!" Miroku came running into view, followed by a huge, black demon. It roared for the first time, sending waves of energy towards them. "We need to get out of here."

"But- Kohaku!"

"They wouldn't leave them all here with these beasts." Miroku pushed her towards the exit, but another of the black demons blocked his path. Slime dripped from its body, fueling the flames on the ground.

Before he could attack again, gas appeared. _I'm getting tired…and I can't move my arms or legs at all…Sango, get out of here._

.-..-.

Musou fell, left eye bloodied and right arm gone.

"Tell me, where is everyone!"

Musou laughed in Inuyasha's face. "I don't know."

Kagome frowned, grabbing the car's half destroyed windshield wiper up off the ground. It glowed, heated, cooled, and pulsed with pure energy.

Inuyasha's frown, reinforced from Kagome's suggestive threat, tightened. "WHERE ARE THEY!"

Pointing Tetsusaiga at the demon, Inuyasha growled warningly. "Fine." Throwing back his sword, Inuyasha brought it down. "Kaze no Kizu!"

The ground ripped away with Musou, leaving nothing behind but deep tracks in the road.

Sesshoumaru reappeared from the forest, his calm eyes showing only a small degree of his anger. He hadn't been able to find Rin, nor Hakudoushi.

Kagura and Yura looked just as irate, not able to trace Hakudoushi's scent either.

Looking over to where Inuyasha stood, Yura covered her mouth. "I guess there's only one left now…"

"Keh." Inuyasha sheathed his sword and crossed his arms. "Musou wasn't helping anything, and he was putting Kagome in danger. With him gone, there's one less threat for everybody Hakudoushi can erase his scent, so we're gonna have to find him without relying on smell."

Kagome blushed at Inuyasha's bold declaration of concern but kept her serious façade in place. Deep down, she was trembling.

Yes, she'd faced men and demons alike with insane powers and weapons at their disposal; all directed at her, but never like this. There had never been such a powerful demon after her and only her, dead set on capturing her alive. The Shikon Jewel was with Hakudoushi, which meant there was only one reason that he needed her.

The thought of being captured by him…it chilled her to the bone.

Inuyasha seemed to sense it and gave her a worried glance. She didn't seem to be paying attention to anything being said. Wrapping a protective arm around her, Inuyasha looked back at his brother. "They have the Jewel, find it, we find them. It's simple." Looking down at Kagome, his voice changed. "Are you up to looking for it yet or do you need time?"

Kagome blinked. She'd never seen him so patient, especially with her. _Hakudoushi wanting to capture me must be bothering him as much as it's bothering me…_

No matter what, though, she would not stop fighting. It was the only way of ending what Naraku had started. "I'm ready."


End file.
